


Love, You're Not Alone

by Magykal777



Series: Even if We're Breaking Down, We Can Find a Way to Break Through [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst and Feels, F/M, Happy Ending, M/M, No Smut, Not Iron Man 3 Compliant, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romantic Soulmates, Slow Burn, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Tags May Change
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:08:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 32,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23970559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magykal777/pseuds/Magykal777
Summary: Even when you've found your soulmates, not everything goes as planned. It's especially unpredictable when one is a genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist and the other has some serious anger management issues.
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Original Female Character(s), Bruce Banner/Tony Stark, Bruce Banner/Tony Stark/Original Female Character(s), Tony Stark/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Even if We're Breaking Down, We Can Find a Way to Break Through [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1682779
Comments: 32
Kudos: 121





	1. The Breaking Point

_Gun shots rang through the dusty valley where the archaeologists had been focused on the dig, minding their own business. Lily could see people running around and meeting the opposing group in combat, their cries and yells nearly drowned out by the other noise. The country landscape changed gradually as Lily tried to get her bearings into tall buildings, overturned cars and rubble crowding the streets with alien roars that could be heard over the sound of combat._

_She was back at the battle._

_On instinct, her eyes raised to Stark Tower, where the dark, gaping portal stood open- except, why wasn’t she up there? Shaking her head to clear it, she immediately began looking around for the hovercraft she’d used to reach the beam, her Captain’s voice- while slightly garbled- made sense enough in her dream-state to prompt her into action. She_ knew _she had to get to Stark Tower, and fast- there was something important…_

_Lily’s eyes flicked up to the portal again and she gasped, seeing more clearly in her dream than in real life the red-and-gold suit of her soulmate as he fell from the portal. She lifted her foot to try to move and tugged desperately when she found she couldn’t. She felt the presence of her other teammates around her, but they seemed to be too far from her reach to help. Her next effort to free herself proved even more useless, as if she were sinking into quick-dry concrete._

_Immediately, she knew it was part of the Inhuman change._

_She wanted to scream, or cry, or do_ **something** _, but the stone chrysalis was rising to her waist and all she could see was her soulmate falling, falling, falling, as the heavy weight of her change covered her chest, pressing down on her, making it hard to breathe- it was in her nose now, and she couldn’t even gasp for breath- her eyes unable to tear themselves away from the site of her soulmate’s inevitable end-_

Lily woke with a start, breathing heavily as if there truly _was_ a weight on her chest. While she'd grown numb to the fear she felt in her nightmare, it was always impossible for her to fall back to sleep. The room was still dark as it often was these days and the New York streets had yet to wake completely. With a sigh, the blonde woman threw back her covers and swung her legs over the side of her bed.

Spending the waking hours pushing down negative thoughts about anything that had to do with The Battle of New York _seemed_ to work at first, but as time passed, her oppressed thoughts made their reappearance in her dreams. The only good thing that came out of her new early mornings was that she’d started a routine of going for a run before getting ready to teach.

Tony had, of course, offered to have all of her expenses covered so she could live at Stark Tower but after some consideration, she’d decided that living and working in the same place wasn’t the best idea. Besides, Lily wanted to maintain _some_ resemblance of normality.

After completing her usual pre-morning routine, she left her apartment, plugging her headphones into her ears as she began her run. The building Lily lived in was several blocks away from Central Park, where she almost always went on her run, so she considered the “getting there” her warm-up. She wasn’t particularly fast, but she _had_ noticed a change in her physical appearance as she became more serious about working out. Lily had found it was also a good way to clear her mind after her night’s unrest and it made the rest of the day much easier.

A lot had changed in the months following the formation of the Avengers, which she could see on her path towards the park. New York had mostly been rebuilt and the people had returned to their normal lives, although now there was a different sort of air about them, knowing they had the protection of superheroes if the stores showing their merchandise was anything to go by. School groups and tourists alike were common visitors on the first few floors of newly-repaired Stark Tower and a Tony Stark sighting was often considered the highlight of the visits.

All of the Avengers had rooms In the revamped building including Lily, although she almost never used hers. While she, Tony, and Bruce were still trying to figure things out between themselves, she _did_ enjoy spending time with them whenever they had free time which wasn’t as often as one would think, even with only one of them having an actual _job_.

It _was_ rather frustrating trying to get two geniuses to talk about their feelings, especially since they were scientists and “didn’t believe in that stuff, Lil,” which had been Tony’s answer the few times she got anywhere near the subject. It made sense, really, as even _after_ everything that happened, he still kept to himself and wouldn’t hear any discussion about reconnecting with his soulmates through their bond. Lily suspected he was hiding something but he was about as impenetrable as a brick wall (except for his jokes and light-hearted conversations, of course.)

Bruce was easier to talk to about “that stuff” even if he was also being a stubborn idiot. _His_ claim was that he couldn’t have “romantic relations” because of “the other guy” which, while a valid point, was completely mute in Lily’s case. She’d even tried to explain what had happened on the Helicarrier before Thor had intervened, but to no avail. No matter how attractive she thought he was, or how okay she was with his _very large problem_ , it seemed all she was getting from him was very close friendship, which she would be okay with if it wasn’t for his reluctance to trust the people he was supposed to.

All of this led them to dancing around each other and avoiding any actual discussion on the topic, much to her fond irritation. The only silver lining to their current situation was that at least they were saying more than just “hey” and “see you later” to each other every time any two of them were in a room together, unlike the first few weeks.

It was clearly getting on their teammate’s nerves as well, since any time any one of them came for a visit, the same question was asked, ranging from “have you guys figured anything out, yet?” (that was Steve), to “stop being idiots and just-“ (thank you, Natasha.) In the best case, the question was asked to only one of the members of the trio, to which Lily would answer honestly, Tony would deflect and Bruce would make another excuse. The worst case was when all three of them were together, and then they’d go back to just saying “hey” and “see you later” for another week.

At least Bruce and Tony had science to bond over and they spent long hours in Tony’s lab doing science-y stuff that Lily couldn’t comprehend. She sat with them in the lab sometimes though, which was nice. She liked when they talked science even if she couldn’t understand it because it made them even more attractive when they were talking about something they were passionate about. Both Bruce and Tony’s expressions would be more open as they did something they loved and Lily was content to watch them work, even when she wished she could contribute _something_ besides drawing while they were working.

This prompted her to take advantage of a part of her teaching package that she’d never payed much attention to- NYU offered discounted classes for their teachers to explore other subjects. While Physics and Engineering wouldn’t really be considered “hobbies” to anyone but a genius, this would be the only _real_ way she could connect with them. Starting college classes with no previous background in the field was difficult, especially for someone whose last science class had been in her freshman year of college but one thing Lily didn’t lack was determination. She had no other way of getting close to her soulmates, and as this was her only option, _she was going to make it work, dammit_.

The upside to this was that it left her very little time to sleep, which helped “improve” her night’s rest immensely. Between her after-school work for teaching, spending a good seventy percent of her day with her “extracurriculars,” visiting Tony and Bruce in the Tower and occasionally meeting up with the other Earth-residing members of the team, her days were chock-full, allowing her to fall into bed around one or two in the morning, only to get up at five or six, depending on when the nightmare hit. With the help of creamy, sugared coffee, this schedule was _completely_ manageable (please note the sarcasm- it wasn’t.)

* * *

While Lily did prefer to live in her own apartment, that didn’t mean that she never used her Stark Tower rooms. She usually lived there on the weekends since that was when everyone else was usually there as well. The only problem with this was that it made her new routine harder to hide, since there were several people who got up even earlier than she did or didn’t even sleep at all. Most times, though, she was able to get by her team without a problem and only see them after she’d come back from her run and was completely ready for the day.

However, she _was_ only (In)human and her schedule couldn’t run perfectly all the time.

Lily had been running late when she’d left her apartment on Friday afternoon and she knew Natasha didn’t like to be kept waiting. After the battle, the two women had bonded surprisingly well despite being vastly different and often had dinner out at the end of the week when Lily was done with school. Because of this, she’d left her apartment in a rush and had forgotten most of the items she needed for spending the weekend away.

This wasn’t really a big deal, since Tony had practically forced her to accept a whole new wardrobe that was kept in her room in Stark Tower because it “didn’t make sense for her to pack her bag every weekend, and let me just splurge a little, Lil,” which turned into her owning items that were worth double- or more- than her current salary. While it had been uncomfortable at first since she’d been so used to budgeting, Lily had learned quickly that saying “Tony, no,” would only result in him making an even more extravagant gift, so she’d learned to accept the new circumstances.

It was kind of nice that someone went to those lengths to make sure she was comfortable and he didn’t only do it for her (although she suspected she was the only one who got a whole new set of clothes), so it made her feel better about it. Despite his seemingly self-centered persona, Tony _was_ very giving.

Anyway, in her new wardrobe- which she hadn’t even touched yet and was honestly afraid to- there had not been any workout clothes included, so when Lily woke up at her usual ungodly hour of four a.m. that morning, she sighed knowing that she’d have to go down to the gym to hunt around for something to wear as there were always clothes available to anyone who needed them.

When she arrived at the gym, she wasn't surprised to find Steve already there, steadily making his way through several punching bags. Pausing a moment to watch him, she gave a little smile, “the stock market’s gonna go up with all of the punching bags Tony will have to replace.”

The Captain startled, apparently pulled out of his zone, but relaxed when he realized who interrupted him, “hey, Lily.”

“Hey grandpa. What did those bags ever do to you?” she asked, pointing to the beat-up ones on the floor.

Steve sighed, “superhuman strength will do that,” then his eyes narrowed when he seemed to realize something, “what are you doing up at four a.m.?”

The blonde winced, knowing that he wasn’t going to like her _real_ answer, “can’t a girl just be up early to get the worm?”

His expression didn’t change; if anything, his frown grew more prominent, “you’re a terrible liar, Lily. Even _I_ can see that. You haven’t been sleeping, have you?”

There was a knowing sort of look on his face that made her uncomfortable, “um…” she said, trying to avoid answering, before an idea occurred to her, “you wanna join me on my run, grandpa? I’ll probably slow you down, but it seems like you could use a change of scenery.” 

Steve hesitated, probably wanting to press the issue, but then he sighed and nodded. Lily beamed at him, “great! Let me just go change and I’ll be ready in two seconds.”

It took a little longer than that, but in no time they were heading out the door of Stark Tower, the blond man turning to her, “where do you usually run?”

“Central Park,” came her prompt answer, “it’s not too far from my place and the paths are great.”

He nodded, readying himself to start towards their destination as Lily put her earbuds in- those, luckily, she hadn’t forgotten- when a sudden thought occurred to her, “hey,” she said, “have you had time to catch up on modern stuff?”

He shrugged, “sort of. The internet’s been very helpful and I have a list.”

“Do you have any music on there?”

“Some, but not a lot. Mostly whatever Stark listens to is what I get.”

Lily wrinkled her nose, “that’s not music,” she informed him (she and Tony had _very_ different tastes), “I’ll find a spare Stark phone and set up my playlist on there so you can get some more variation. Tony thinks he has a good taste in music, but don’t let him fool you.”

Steve gave her an amused look, “and what if I don’t like your music?”

“I can bring the phone tomorrow and _then_ you can tell me whether or not you don’t like it.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he agreed, “now, shall we start?”

Lily grinned at him, inclining her head, “ladies first.”

He let out a laugh at that, “alright, but you’re going to regret your generosity.”

* * *

As they returned to Stark Tower, she and Steve stopped at a nearby coffee place to relax after their run. Since it was still relatively early morning, not many people were out and few drew their attention towards the supersoldier, leaving the pair relatively alone. True to her word, Lily _had_ held Steve back, and after reassuring him she wasn’t going to be offended if he left her, the man had lapped her nearly twenty times and barely broke a sweat, leaving her extremely envious of his fast metabolism. He’d probably waited nearly thirty minutes for her to be even mostly done with her run so they could meet up to get coffee after.

Lily was glad she’d pulled her hair completely up and away from her face because otherwise it would have been a sweaty, gross mess. She hadn’t even been _trying_ to keep up with him, but she’d gone faster than she normally would anyway. The coffee was a relief after her unusually intense workout.

She could feel Steve’s eyes on her as she turned the sugar shaker completely upside down, patiently waiting as the granules emptied into her nearly-white coffee, “yes?” she asked, amused.

“Do you want some coffee with that?” he answered teasingly.

“No thanks,” Lily responded in the same tone, “I just like cream and sugar with coffee flavoring. I mean, it’s way better than that black stuff you and Tony drink. A little sweetness won’t make you soft, you know.”

Steve shook his head, “how’s that going, by the way? You and-“

The amusement faded slightly from her face as she put the sugar down, “not well. I know you guys keep asking out of concern, but… maybe it’s just better this way.”

His eyes narrowed, “you don’t believe that.”

“I don’t,” she agreed, “but what choice do I have? Talking to them doesn’t work and I really don’t know what else to do.”

“Maybe talking should be step two, Lily,” he suggested and with a little smirk said “back in my day, we had the saying ‘actions speak louder than words.’ Maybe you should _show_ them how you’re feeling first?”

The woman sighed, not picking up on their recurring joke, “I tried that, too. I haven’t mentioned this to anyone, but I’ve started taking a Physics and an Engineering class to try and connect with them. It’s probably folly anyway since any material we cover could never be enough to help me out.”

Steve’s expression softened as he watched her stir the contents of her cup absentmindedly, “you really care about them, don’t you?”

Lily nodded, “sometimes… sometimes it just _hurts_ so much, you know? I just- I just want to _be_ with them, and they keep throwing up all of these walls, and I know their lives haven’t been easy, but what’s the point of soulmates if you can’t- if you can’t _rely_ on them?” her voice cracked a little towards the end and she glanced down into the milky contents.

“I know,” Steve said softly, “I’m not sure how to make it better, but I’m here to talk, if you need it.”

Lily gave him a small smile, reaching out to gently place her hand on his arm, “I know, Stevie. This goes both ways, you know?”

He relaxed at her words and nodded, and Lily wondered about _his_ soulmate situation. He’d been under the ice for an entire lifetime, was his soulmate even still _alive_? Lily’s heart twisted in her chest at that thought, of waking up in a new century, a new life, without the person- or people- you’re supposed to have by your side, and suddenly her soulmate problems seemed insignificant as she looked at him in a new light, “what about you, Stevie?” at his confused look, she nodded to his wrist, “how do you feel about… about everything?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy May everyone! We're finally at part two- I can't wait to get started! 
> 
> Like I said, I'm only going to post one chapter right now and wait until summer so I can focus on finishing up my semester, but after that... wait 'til you see what I've got in store! I'm definitely making this a slow burn (as you can tell from the tags) so true romance might not happen until part three... but that doesn't mean there can't be a lot of angst :) 
> 
> This is going to be an Iron Man 3 rewrite + some extra scenes that I've added. I am a little nervous since I want to try to make this realistic and I've never really written anything with PTSD before, so I hope I do it justice and would appreciate constructive criticism if necessary. 
> 
> Let me know what you think of the first chapter and I'll see you in the summer!


	2. In Other Words, I Love You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, actions speak louder than words.

_Lily & Tony _

Natasha smirked at her blonde-haired friend, “you’re doing it again,” she commented.

Lily startled, “what?” she asked, her focus still trained on Tony as he mingled with the crowd.

“You’re staring,” she said patiently, “it’s a good thing Bruce isn’t here or else you’d be watching a tennis match.”

Lily ignored her, favoring instead to keep her eyes trained on her soulmate who looked incredibly handsome in his (very expensive) suit. Lily and Natasha were currently sitting at Tony’s bar while the said man was hosting the first function the entire team had been invited to- not that the guests knew the Avengers were in the crowd, of course. Bruce, as usual, had declined the invite and was probably in a lab upstairs or had already returned to his recently-bought nearby apartment. Tony, being the “life of the party,” was mingling with guests doing a much better job than he’d ever done before.

“You know,” the red-haired woman said in an effort to regain her friend’s attention, “if you really wanted to find out what he thinks about you, you should just go up to him and kiss him senseless.”

 _That_ got her attention, “ _Nat_!” Lily exclaimed, blushing furiously, “I can’t do _that_! He has a _girlfriend_! I- we-“

Her supposed friend laughed at her stuttering, “I’m sure he’d appreciate it, Lil.”

“ _No!”_ the blonde finally gasped out, giving the other woman a wide-eyed look, “we’ve barely even _touched_ since the battle- I couldn’t- right _here?_ ”

“Mmm,” Natasha said, not bothering to hide her amusement, “it was only a suggestion, Lily. There’s no need to get so bent out of shape.”

She received a glare in return, “that was _not_ only a suggestion from you, _Natasha_ ,” Lily responded, “you’ve been hinting-and more than that- every time one of them is in the room. Are you _trying_ to sabotage me or something?”

The redhead rolled her eyes, “I’m doing the complete opposite of that, if anything. We don’t need you three keeping this up for the rest of our lives. God, can you _imagine_?” she asked in mock horror.

Lily sighed, “I’m doing the best I can, okay? Not everyone can be as confident as you, Nat.”

The blonde knew that if she could, Natasha would go up to Tony and kiss him _for_ her, just to “get this over with” but, unfortunately, things didn’t work like that. Lily’s eyes returned to the man who stole her attention and stayed there, causing Natasha to roll her eyes for the umpteenth time that night and billionth time in the past four months.

_Tony & Bruce_

Having someone else in the lab was strange after so long of being its only occupant. Tony sometimes forgot that Bruce was there in the first place and startled easily whenever the other man spoke or entered the room. The change was welcome, though, and helped distract him from his less pleasant thoughts. There was no denying Bruce’s brilliance, which Tony wasn’t afraid to admit was (almost) on par with his own.

It felt good to bounce ideas to someone other than an AI (as great as Jarvis was) or Pepper, for while both had his best interests at heart neither were really suited for brainstorming sessions. Bruce, on the other hand, with his seven PhDs (which he liked to remind Tony of on a daily basis) never had to question what he meant and even came back with his own ideas. The lab was an environment Tony understood, and ‘science-talk’ with Bruce was something he was comfortable with. Everything else that was “emotional” in nature was meant to be avoided which he did to the best of his ability.

Even with his aversion to human connection it wasn’t wholly unavoidable. It was easy for him to deny the happiness he felt in Bruce’s- or even Lily’s- presence, and the soft, fluffy emotions he claimed to hate and to be above, but it was harder to deny them when it came with physical contact.

Bruce ran warmer than the average human thanks to the influx of Gamma radiation, so even if he wasn’t even close to him, Tony could sense the man’s presence which would give his stomach a funny, swoopy sensation that he’d never felt before. It was different than how he'd felt even with Pepper. It intensified whenever he called Bruce over to look at something and the other dark-haired man had to step close to him. With the warmth and strength of Bruce’s chest against his back , Tony usually forgot what he needed to say in the first place. But, with the crap show that was his life- and his own physical challenges that he was facing- it was better for these… these _feelings_ to go unsaid and unacknowledged.

_Bruce & Lily_

It took some time to get used to his new surroundings. Ever since gaining his alter ego, Bruce had separated himself from society to keep others from getting hurt. Now, with the newfound trust he had in the Avengers- and two people in particular- he realized how nice it was having friends again. Being on the run didn’t permit such luxuries but working with Tony and the rest of the team helped him get some semblance of a normal life.

Much like his fellow scientist, he enjoyed having someone in the lab to bounce ideas off of and fill in the silence whenever he felt like it. Once he started talking, Tony was never easy to shut up but Bruce liked the sound of the other man’s voice filling his ears as he worked and would never dream of telling him to be quiet- even if some of Tony’s thoughts were best left unsaid.

The lab had other visitors too, of course- most notably his other soulmate, Lily. While she claimed to have no head for their field, she was their most frequent visitor and often brought her own work to the lab so they could all be in the same space. With the two men spending most of their time there, this was the best compromise. Unlike Tony, Lily was quite happy to sit in silence with her work which Bruce could appreciate. They were alike in that way, being the two quieter members of their trio. In everything else though, Lily seemed to take on more of Tony’s traits than his own.

The blonde woman was currently sitting on one of the lab desks with a paper in her lap waiting for him to finish up so they could have lunch together. While science projects took up most of his time and his fears of being in a relationship held him back from the interaction Lily probably wanted from him, he wasn’t going to be like Tony and shut her out completely. Bruce suspected this was because their emotional connection had never been compromised in the way Tony’s had with the two of them, leaving Bruce and Lily to become far closer on a personal level which led to easier communication.

After putting away the last of his supplies, the dark-haired man moved around the table to where Lily was sitting, looking curiously down at the paper she had in her lap. He thought she’d been working but the page was covered in little, detailed doodles of various things from intricate snowflakes to three-dimensional boxes.

“I didn’t know you drew,” he commented, watching as the pencil she held made a curve on the paper.

Lily jumped slightly as if she’d been caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to do, “I’m supposed to be working,” she admitted, her cheeks turning a faint pink, “but yeah, I took a few courses in college and had a knack for it,” she waved at the paper in her lap, “these are just doodles though. I couldn’t seem to focus on my actual work so I didn’t even try.”

Bruce smiled slightly at her admittance, studying the detailed loop of her drawing as she apparently completed it- even if it didn’t look finished. The curved line had turned into a sideways eight, like an infinity symbol, but she’d left a middle part of the rounded edge unconnected. He started suddenly, recognizing the mathematical symbol “you know Euler’s infinity symbol?”

Looking up from the page, the blonde woman blinked at him in confusion, “who’s Euler?”

“He was a mathematician in the eighteenth century,” Bruce explained, studying the picture, “a lot of math wasn’t possible until the infinity symbol was created but even then, it was hard to work with a never-ending number. Euler found a way to make infinity a finite number and it allowed new math problems to be created.”

Lily grinned, “great- just what we needed, more math!” he gave her an amused look as continued with a shrug, “I didn’t know it was a math thing. Before I started teaching, I took a few abroad trips to study ancient architecture and one of them was in Jersey, England. They have a tradition called a datestone where the married couples’ names are above the door frame, usually combined with a symbol or date,” she gestured to the page, “this was one of them. It had been repaired incorrectly and we were supposed to look for clues to indicate that. I was the one who saw it wasn’t complete.”

“Someone in the couple must have been a mathematician or scientist, then,” Bruce observed, looking up from the page.

“One my classmates said they’d preferred the connected hearts with their soulmate’s name,” Lily said with a laugh, “that was the common symbol in all of the datestones. I thought it was a cliché idea and that this one was much better,” she glanced at Bruce and grinned, “now I see why.”

The dark-haired man blushed at looked away, shaking his head, “Euler’s infinity symbol is much better,” he agreed, pausing as he thought about his reasoning “if they were soulmates, it showed that the two of them formed a complete unit… a togetherness… that contained infinity,” still rather embarrassed, he looked back up at her, “do you understand?”

Lily bit her lip as she puzzled it out, “so since it wasn’t a fully connected infinity, that means that even their marriage had a beginning and end, every day of it was filled with forever?” her blue eyes softened as they met his brown ones.

“It’s a beautiful concept,” Bruce murmured, his eyes not leaving hers.

“Yeah it is,” she agreed breathlessly and they stood like that for their own little part of eternity.

_Tony & Lily & Bruce_

Lily never claimed to know much about science and stood by what she said. That didn’t mean she didn’t form her own opinions on some theories- or, in this case, a lack thereof. Tony Stark’s lab was a great place for figuring out these sorts of things, though, which is why the idea came to her.

The blonde woman was currently sitting on one of the lab desks with her feet swinging childishly beneath her as her eyes scanned over one of her student’s essays. A stack of fifty more sat next to her on the left with about thirty on her right. At the seat she’d occupied for the last hour was her grading guide and several red and blue pens laid out for use as others dried up.

Bruce, who was wearing his usual lab gear of frameless glasses and white lab coat, was handling some tiny substance with tweezers and carefully inputting data with his free hand. Tony, as usual, was working on one of his many suit designs and had only recently taken off the safety helmet he’d been wearing and set aside the blowtorch in favor of using a screwdriver to get to a more intricate part of the suit.

They’d been working in a comfortable silence for some time- bar the sounds of work being done, and Lily humming ‘Brandy’ underneath her breath- when she finally felt like it was time to speak. Looking up from another one of her students’ bone-dry reports on Aztec advances to gauge the scientists’ reaction to her question, she asked, “do you guys believe in the multiverse theory?”

Bruce gently set down the tweezers he was working with and looked up using his now-free hand to take off his glasses and rub the bridge of his nose. While this gesture was normally one he would do in exasperation, Lily also knew he was wont to do it right before going deep in thought.

There was a pause where Lily wasn’t even sure if they were going to answer, but then Bruce said “yes” at the same exact time Tony said “no.”

Smiling in amusement, Lily asked her follow up question, “care to explain?”

Tony shrugged, “this universe is already pretty sucky. Why would I want a potentially worse one? I’m trying to deal with the lot I have and don’t need any more shit to deal with.” He didn’t say this a wholly negative way, just sort of matter-of-factly that showed he truly believed what he was saying.

Lily wasn’t really surprised at his cynical way of thinking. For as long as she’d known him- which, granted, wasn’t much time- this seemed to fall into his general pattern. He was the type of person to cover true feelings with jokes and deflections but wasn’t generally optimistic about many things, not that Lily could blame him.

“Bruce?” she prompted.

The dark-haired man mimicked Tony’s action, “there has to be a better outcome, right? I mean, I wouldn’t want every result to come out to me being- being like _this_ ,” he gestured vaguely to himself in a way that Lily understood he was talking about the Hulk, “otherwise what’s the point of a multiverse anyway?”

Lily fell silent as her expression softened. She knew about Bruce’s reluctance to be in any sort of physical relationship, of course- hence why they were stuck being “friends”- but she was surprised at _his_ negative view of the multiverse. She hadn’t even exactly meant the question the way they answered- she’d been trying to cleverly get to the topic of soulmates- but Bruce had always seemed at _least_ more hopeful than what his answer revealed.

“What’s with the ice-breakers anyway, Lil?” Tony asked.

The blonde woman shrugged, “I’ve never gotten a scientist’s opinion on theories before and I’ve always found the multiverse one interesting,” she hesitated, wondering if she _should_ push the issue she’d wanted to talk about, but Bruce talked first, “what do you think, then?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted, “in some ways it might be good to have a multiverse for better outcomes, but like you said, Stark, I’d have to deal with the bad ones as well, and there just might be some universes that I couldn’t face.”

If there _were_ universes where the three of them didn’t- somehow, _eventually_ \- end up together, Lily was pretty sure she didn’t want to be a part of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had my last final today! I'm not sure about my update schedule yet, but I'm actively writing chapters, so it'll at least happen sometime. 
> 
> I'm also going to start a spin-off series with one-shots and other POVs that don't fit into the main story. I'm not sure when I'll get that up, either, but it will be called Woven in my Soul (I thought it was very fitting.) 
> 
> So, yeah. That's it. I hope you enjoyed!   
> This is (hopefully) going to be a wild ride :)


	3. A Change is as Good as the West

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Perhaps a change of scenery is what Lily needs to get her head back in the game. Luckily, Tony has a convenient home base of Malibu, California- right near her temporary new job.

**Late Fall 2012**

The ringing of her phone cut loudly through the quiet of the apartment. Jumping slightly in surprise, Lily flipped the device over to check the caller ID which read _unknown caller_. She hesitated, her thumb hovering over the answer button. Since becoming friends- or at least friendly- with very paranoid people, Lily had started to take more care in the information she gave out and a phone call without an ID set off alarm bells in her head.

The phone continued to ring, though, and she decided that if she didn’t like the person on the other line she’d just hang up so she answered, “hello?”

 _“Ah- good, Lily, you answered,”_ a very familiar Argentinian accent responded, _“I was wondering if you’d pick up.”_

The blonde woman relaxed, “Dr. Castillo! I haven’t heard from you since Germany! We saved the world, you know,” Lily said in a slightly bragging tone.

The dark-haired man smiled on the other side of the line, _“yes, I know. You did very well for your first time. Look, I’d like to say that I’m calling on friendly terms, but I actually need your area of expertise.”_

“My area of expertise?” she echoed, both pleased and confused.

_“Yes. There have been some archaeologists digging around the old mining towns in California and let’s just say you’ve had experience with some of their finds. SHIELD’s taken custody of the ‘suspicious’ artifacts, but seeing as I’m preoccupied in Argentina right now, I can’t very well travel to California to study the finds. Would you-“_

“Yes!” Lily interrupted eagerly, “I would _love_ to spend the winter somewhere warm. I mean, I know it’s not all fun and games, but I’ve been wanting an excuse to get out of New York for a while. Do you know how long they’ll need me?”

_“Seeing as we’re the ones who know the artifacts, I’m assuming you can be done by spring. Most of the necessary details can’t be said over the line of course, so you’ll be filled in once you get there.”_

“And when do I need to be ‘there’?” Lily asked, using her free hand to do air quotes around the last word (not that the other doctor saw, of course.)

 _“November twenty-fifth,”_ Dr. Castillo answered promptly, _“I’ll send your answer to the Director now. I’m sure he’ll be quite pleased_ (here, Lily snorted- she wasn’t sure if Fury had ever been “pleased”). _You’ll want to look for a place to stay, of course, so make sure you leave enough time to plan.”_

The blonde woman rolled her eyes, “yeah, yeah. I’m not completely incompetent, you know.”

 _“I know,”_ the dark-haired man answered easily, _“that’s why I recommended you for the job in the first place.”_

“You _did_ -“ Lily started, but the line went dead before the conversation could continue. Staring at the black screen for a moment, the actual conversation she’d just had suddenly hit her: she had a _real_ mission. Sure, she wasn’t a certified Agent, but SHIELD wanted _her_ help!

“ _Yes, yes, yes_!” she cried happily, jumping up from her seat to do a little dance. Even if she felt slightly foolish after, it felt _wonderful_ to be as important as the other Avengers- or at least as close to important as she would ever get.

She could feel Bruce’s bemused happiness through their bonds, for while he didn’t know _why_ she was suddenly so happy, Lily knew he was celebrating with her anyway. Making a mental note to tell him the next time she saw him, Lily immediately went back onto her computer- although not to finish grading papers as she’d originally been doing- to open up a new browser to look for apartments in California.

* * *

Her enthusiasm continued throughout the week until Friday when Lily walked into the lab. Almost immediately, Bruce looked up, “what’s got you so excited, Lil?”

The blonde-haired woman grinned, “I’m moving to California!” in her excitement, she didn’t notice Stark's hands still over his work, “I’ve been… I don’t know, contracted? Yeah, contracted with SHEILD to work with them over something they’ve found out there- I can finally be useful!”

The scientist’s expression softened slightly, “you _are_ useful, Lily-“

“Yeah, well I’ll be _more_ useful, then,” she amended, not wholly telling the truth, “but I’ve never had a job replacement before!”

Bruce gave her an amused smile as Tony finally spoke up, “do you know where you have to live?”

Lily shook her head, “you can’t exactly disclose an undisclosed area over the phone, Stark.”

“You live in Malibu, don’t you, Tony?” Bruce asked.

The man didn’t get a chance to reply as Lily spoke up excitedly “maybe we can go out for lunch or something, wouldn’t that be fun?” she clapped her hands together enthusiastically at the end of her statement.

By now, Tony had looked up from his suit and was watching the conversation actively, “That’s not exactly what I meant,” he corrected her, his voice deceivingly nonchalant, “there’s no point in renting an apartment if you don’t know where you have to be, right?”

She blinked at him, confusion spreading over her face, “well, what else am I supposed to do? Live in a hotel room?”

Bruce took off his glasses with a sigh and gently pinched the bridge of his nose in the familiar exasperated gesture, causing Lily to prompt “what? What am I missing here?”

“I’m asking you to move in with me,” Tony said bluntly.

It took Lily several seconds to process what he’d just said, “really?”

He shrugged, turning back to his work as if he didn’t care about the outcome of his question “yeah- sure.”

“But- but that’s- that’s like _commitment_. How do you know we won’t burn the house down?” (she suddenly felt very overwhelmed by the unexpected gesture- To- _Stark_ never initiated anything- and her throat felt suspiciously tight.)

“We’ll have Banner on speed dial to put out the fire,” Tony answered easily (even without being emotionally connected to her, he could tell.) 

Lily bit her lip- there _was_ a very real possibility that she and Tony would have some sort of volatile argument that might break up whatever they currently had “going on.” Even with Bruce there to mediate, there were certainly going to be clashes between a man and woman who’d never had a constant live-in partner.

“I’ll think about it, thank you,” Lily decided on saying, not wanting to say ‘no’ right away. She was still recovering from the surprise, after all.

* * *

Lily went to Natasha to voice her concerns- and to find out where, exactly SHIELD, California was. While she didn’t get much on the second topic (apparently some sort of protocol), it was at least nice to hear another voice of reason.

“It’s a big commitment, Nat. I don’t want to impose, or, you know, move to fast-“

The redhead rolled her eyes, “if you’d move any slower, you’d be going backwards, Lily.”

She flushed slightly, “I’m just taking _precautions,_ you know. I don’t want it to blow up in my face.”

Her friend gave her a deadpan look, “it’s going to blow up in your face either way. You could end up having everything you’ve ever wanted or it will be the end of the world. It’s just who you and Stark are- all or nothing.”

Lily sighed, “that’s the answer, then, I guess. We have to figure out _whatever_ this is- if we even have anything- the, you know, spark,” she glanced up at Natasha to confirm that she did, indeed, know what Lily was talking about before the blonde woman said with finality, “whatever it takes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are going to get (even more) interesting :) 
> 
> Thank you for the comments. I love reading them!


	4. And So it Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sharing a house- or mansion, more precisely- with Tony Stark is not everything that it’s cracked up to be. It’s a good thing there’s 11,000 square feet between them most of the time.

**Day 1**

To say Tony Stark’s house- no, _mansion-_ was big was the understatement of the century.

It was _huge_.

Lily was pretty sure she was going to get lost if he ever left her side.

“Do you have GPS on this thing?” she asked as they went down to the labs, “maybe a mall map? Or, you know, a train station?”

Tony snorted, “I get around just fine, don’t I, Jarvis?”

“Yes, Sir,” the AI dutifully replied, before adding, “Dr. Maywell, if you require assistance in getting around, I will be happy to help.”

“Thanks Mr. J- I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You don’t need to be so professional, Blondie. Just Jarvis is fine,” Tony said as he typed in the code to the lab.

Lily huffed, “I happen to _enjoy_ giving respect that’s due, and besides, Mr. J’s cool with that, right?”

“You may call me whatever you’d like, Dr. Maywell,” came his response.

She stuck her tongue out childishly at him, “see?”

\--

**Day 4**

Apparently, the SHIELD base was in the Mojave desert, an “easy” four-hour drive. At least she hadn’t gone with Option B in her apartment hunting- it would’ve added an extra ten minutes to her ride. The base was located in a nondescript, middle-of-nowhere location that needed coordinates and a vow of secrecy but once inside, the building was a bustle of life. A woman with dark hair greeted her as Agent Maria Hill who Lily vaguely recognized from the attack on New York.

She was all business when they met, and soon Lily was following her down a hospital-like hallway, “-and there’s glowing, unearthly light coming from it,” the woman was saying, “some civilians dug it up in one of the abandoned ghost towns near here. Dr. Castillo said you’ve had experience with this?”

The lab was located on the first floor, causing Lily to assume that that was where she was allowed to have clearance, and they stopped at a door on their right, “yes, it sounds familiar. No one has touched it with their bare skin, right?”

The doors opened and Agent Hill led her inside, “no. Why? What happens?”

Lily’s face darkened as she remembered the trapping weight of stone, “nothing good.”

\--

**Day 7**

The “glowing object” had been easy enough to identify and had caused some surprise with the science staff at her explanation. She was really only repeating what Dr. Castillo had explained but it was obviously more than what SHIELD knew. She was almost shocked when they asked her to keep coming back, since there wasn’t really enough information to run proper tests or whatever it was scientists did, but she’d agreed and made the four-hour commute four days a week.

By now, she’d gotten used to asking for Jarvis’ help in getting around, but the first route she memorized was the path from her room to the kitchen. She had just made a trip from her room to get ice cream and was returning, too focused on digging out a bite to notice someone approach her.

“ _Jesus-_!”

Lily’s head jerked up and she nearly dropped her spoon as Tony stared at her in shock. The blonde woman sighed, used to this by now. The first two days had been relatively normal, but on day three, Tony had apparently forgotten she was living with him.

“You forgot I moved in, didn’t you?”

His mouth opened and closed for a moment before he seemed to recover, “yes, but in my defense, you move like a damn cat.”

Lily stared at him, spoon poised halfway between her mouth and the ice cream tub, “you didn’t hear all of the noise I was _literally_ just making? That freezer is a mess, by the way.”

“What else is new?” he asked with a grin, “but hey, look at it this way- at least I _like_ being reminded you’re here every day?”

The blonde woman rolled her eyes, “maybe I should where sleigh bells or something.”

“Just the sleigh bells would be fine.”

Lily tried to ignore the blush that rose to her face and swept past him, not even bothering to share her treat. _He has a girlfriend_ , she tried reminding herself, _and it’s not you_.

\--

**Day 10**

Her living there wasn’t the only thing Tony forgot but Lily didn’t notice the details as much as she probably should have. Sure, he startled every time she entered the room.

Sure, he probably had forgotten her name because in her memory, he’d only ever used it once.

And sure, she probably saw him less than one third of the time they were both in the house.

But all those things were probably because he was used to living on his own for so long. Even with the woman, Pepper, in the picture, he was probably only familiar with seeing her every day and no one else so his forgetfulness could be excused.

It also didn’t help that she’d chosen a room as far away as she could, hoping the physical distance would remind her to keep emotional distance. And it sort of worked.

He was gone more often than not and so the giant mansion felt more like a tomb than a home, so it was understandable as to why he wouldn’t want to be there. Lily didn’t have anything else to do but her SHIELD work, though, and that could only be done at the base where she gave what was probably less-than-useful advice.

It was a relief when her phone rang, distracting her from the physics problems that were swirling on the paper, “hello?”

“Found the spark yet?”

“Nat!” she cried, almost actually _crying_.

“I guess not, then.”

Lily sighed, “nope. _God_ , it’s so depressing here. I mean, Stark’s not bad, but when I’m by _myself_? I don’t know how he does it.”

“You call your soulmate by his last name?” her voice sounded amused.

She shrugged, “emotional distancing, y’know? I mean, he hasn’t even actually _said_ anything about that. It’s always deflect, deflect, deflect with him.”

“Have you tried sneak attack?”

A snort escaped her nose, “I don’t even have to _try_ with that. The second I walk into the room, he jumps.”

Natasha went quiet on the other side.

“Nat?”

“Yeah, I’m still here. Are you sure the problem is _just_ you?”

Lily frowned, “what? Are you saying I’m a problem?”

“No, of course not- don’t put words in my mouth, Lily,” Natasha reprimanded her, “I’m just saying that maybe there’s a reason he’s being distant from you, more than just the fact that you’re his soulmate he’s ignoring on purpose.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s something for you to think about, Lil, but has he forgotten more than just the fact that you’re living with him?”

\--

**Day 14**

Two weeks in and Lily was pretty sure they were going to end up with the ‘end of everything’ option.

She’d tried to talk to him about whatever Nat had been trying to get at, whatever _problems_ he might be having, but he either shut her down or trailed off and abruptly changed the subject whenever they got anywhere close.

He even seemed to be avoiding her more, as if her pestering was a nuisance. (It probably was.)

As a result, she started spending more time at the SHIELD lab and only saw him once a day, if she was lucky.

\--

**Day 17**

It was one of those rare, lucky moments that she could _almost_ convince herself she had a normal soulmate relationship.

She’d come home from her workday, grabbed something to eat, and asked Jarvis where Tony was. To her surprise, the answer had been ‘in the lab, Dr. Maywell.’ So, that was where she went.

After tapping on the glass to get his attention (and scaring the man to death again), she entered the pass code he’d mimed for her. The glass door slid open and she entered, handing him the remainder of her snack.

“Thanks,” was his mouth-full-of-food response.

Lily glanced around at the messy workspace and saw one of his suits on the bench, “what are you working on?”

“Suit,” he moved back to the bench, then paused as he watched her in the doorway, an idea seeming to occur to him, “hey, Blondie, get over here a sec.”

She did as she was told, and almost recoiled as his hand grabbed hers. It took all of her willpower not to pull away, the weeks of trying to keep some sort of barrier between them falling apart with a single touch.

“What? You have a thing about germs or something?” he asked, her expression probably mirroring her thoughts, “because I get it, I totally do-“

“No, no it’s fine,” she tried to keep her voice steady as he pulled her closer, “what are you doing?”

“I thought you’d like to help build this one- a real treat,” he grinned at her and then gave a little tug so she was facing the worktable in front of them while he stood behind her.

Lily’s breath caught in her throat as she felt him press up against her, solid, warm, and unyielding. His arms came around her on either side and she could feel the roughness of his mechanic-hands as they enclosed around her own.

Together, they reached over and picked up one of the scattered tools on the work bench, “this is a screwdriver,” he explained.

Lily snorted, “I think I know _that_ much at least, Stark. Contrary to popular belief, I’m not a _complete_ idiot.

She could almost _hear_ the smirk in his voice as he answered, “this is also _not_ a cocktail.”

And then, they worked together, as _one_ , like they were supposed to. Lily was surprised that the addition of extra appendages didn’t encumber him, but he wasn’t called a genius for nothing she supposed.

Even if he did most of the work, it was nice spending time _together_ , even if it threatened the self-preservation of her emotions. She didn’t nag him about soulmates or problems and he didn’t startle every time she said something quippy to his explanations.

It was _perfect_.

Well, _almost_ perfect.

Lily finally, regretfully had to pull away with the benign excuse that she “needed to pee,” much to Tony’s amusement.

His lighthearted expression softened slightly, though, as he looked at her with something akin to surprise and said, almost as if she wasn’t meant to hear, _“_ god, _it’s nice to actually feel something one of these days._ ”

Lily stared at him for a moment, all of the pieces suddenly falling into place. Then, the familiar prickling sensation on the back of her neck made it’s appearance.

_Danger._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I think I'm going to stick to updating every Sunday. This book is 95% complete so I should be able to stick to that. I've even started writing the next one- I don't think I've ever been more excited to write for a series except for one other fanfiction on a different account. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this week's update :)


	5. And So it Continues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily tries to reach out for help before it’s too late

**Day 17** , 11:00 pm

“Nat? I’ve figured it out.”

“So what are you gonna do about it?”

\--

**Day 18**

Lily knew she was being selfish when she crossed Pepper off the list of people that could help. She was the man’s _girlfriend_ , for crying out loud. If anyone could help him, it was her.

 _But she didn’t_ , a nasty little voice in Lily’s head whispered, _and now it’s up to you_.

She ignored the twist in her stomach at the thought of Pepper as _Tony’s girlfriend_ and continued with her search through his schedule. She wasn’t provided access to anything else close to him and even then, this was just a precaution if she needed him or, against all odds, vice versa.

There was a lunch date made for later the same week with someone called ‘Rhodey.’ It sounded like a nickname so she figured they must be friends. _She really didn’t know anything about Tony, after all_.

“Hey, Mr. J?”

“Yes, Dr. Maywell?”

“Who’s Rhodey?”

“His name is Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes. He has known Mr. Stark for quite awhile.”

“…Would you consider them close, Mr. J?”

“Yes,” came the AI’s immediate response, “Mr. Stark has known the Colonel longer than Ms. Potts.”

“Right then,” Lily said, “can I get his phone number? I’m assuming I can’t just Google search it.”

“…Dr. Maywell?”

“I meant, can I get a call. I don’t actually _need_ the digits.”

“Doctor, I’m not sure if Mr. Stark would approve of this intervention.”

Lily snorted, “fuck approval. I’m starting a fire.”

“…I do not understand.”

She sighed, “ _please_ , Mr. J? I don’t know what else to do. I could ask Bruce, but he’s all the way in New York. This Rhodey guy is meeting with Stark _this week_.”

_Calling Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes_

_Shit, now_? Lily frantically scrambled her thoughts together- she’d expected _time_ before talking to one of the most important people in St- _Tony’s_ life. Maybe there would be voicemail. Yeah, that would be-

_“Hello?”_

_Shit-shitshitshit-_

“Uh, hi,” Lily immediately cringed and coughed, “sorry, I meant, um, Colonel Rhodes?”

_“Yes, who is this?”_

“Um, I’m Doctor Lily Maywell. I know you don’t know who I am, but-“

_“It’s alright, Doctor, I recognize your name.”_

“…You do?”

_“Tony has mentioned both you and a Doctor Banner, so I’m assuming you’re his girl, not his guy.”_

Lily started in surprise ( _Tony talked about her?)_ , and then forced herself to focus, “right. Um, it’s nice to meet you, I suppose.”

 _“You as well, Doctor. How’d you get my number?”_ he sounded amused.

“Um, I stole it.”

His laughter echoed over the phone, “god _, you guys are troublemakers, aren’t you?”_

Lily smiled slightly, “yeah, I suppose. Um, anyway, I need your help.”

_“What’s up, Doc?”_

The blonde woman rolled her eyes, “I haven’t heard _that_ one before,” then she sobered, “anyway, um, since you’re the closest person to him, and, like, his best friend-“

_God, why was she so awkward?_

_“He said that? I beat Pepper?”_

“Um, well, I just assumed, since y’know bros before-“ she paused, not wanting to _actually_ call Pepper names, even if she thought about it.

 _“Right, got it,”_ he answered easily, _“I’m not sure if I’m exactly the right person for this, though, Doc. This is nothing personal, but I happen to make it my life’s mission to not get involved in Tony’s well, let’s just call it his personal life, shall we?”_

Lily almost hung up the phone. Sure, she knew about the man’s habits, but did this guy seriously think she’d call him about something like _that_?

“Nothing personal, Colonel”- she couldn’t stop herself from mocking him slightly- “but I’m not a part of Stark’s ‘personal life’ (her air quotes were unfortunately lost on him). I wouldn’t be calling if this wasn’t important. He’s in danger.”

_“…I’m listening.”_

**Day 19**

At two a.m., her bedroom door slammed open. Deep in physics studies and with headphones in her ears, Lily didn’t hear it.

What she _did_ hear, though, and made her spin around was Tony Stark’s furious voice, “what the _hell_ Blondie?”

There was only one way to describe him: he was _pissed_.

Her mind still swirling with translational motion and energy conversions, she could only blink dumbly at him, “what?”

“Seriously, what the _hell_? Staging an intervention? That’s _not_ cool.”

Realization dawned on her, “you talked to Rhodey.”

“No _shit_ I talked to Rhodey. And it’s not ‘Rhodey’ to you. That’s reserved for friends, and you’re certainly _not_ one of mine.”

 _Ouch_. Lily took a deep breath, forcing herself to remain calm. It would be counterproductive to get into a shouting match with him right now, “look,” she said, “I’m only trying to help-“

“Funny, I don’t remember asking for it,” he shot back immediately.

“You need _help_ , Stark,” she persisted.

“I’m handling it,” he snapped back, waving his arms around (she presumed he thought they were in his lab and was gesturing to his work), “I’m doing what I’ve always done.”

“Well, maybe it’s time for a change of pace,” Lily suggested, trying to be the voice of reason, “you know, talk to somebody about this? Take a break?”

 _Wrong move_. The anger vanished instantly and Lily thought for a- mistaken- second that she’d won. Instead, when he next spoke, his voice had an icy edge to it, “I can’t just _stop_ working right now, _Doc_ ,” he said, stressing her title, “it’s doing what you’re _trying_ to do and it's helping me work through things.”

Lily stood up from her chair to see eye-to-eye with him (even if only physically), “that’s exactly why you _should_ take a break, Stark. You’re not going to get anything done if you’re all messed up in here,” she pointed to her head.

It seemed to take him a minute to register what she’d said, and then his voice was deceptively nonchalant as he said, “well, now you’re sounding like Obie.”

Lily wasn’t stupid. She’d watched the news, especially where it had concerned her then-potential soulmate. She blinked, trying to process what he’d said, “I sound like Obie,” she repeated slowly, as if talking to a five-year-old, “as in the man who tried to murder you? More than once? Obidiah Stane, really?”

“After Afghanistan, when I made the decision to stop producing weapons, he tried telling everyone that _I_ wasn’t in control of myself. For your information, Doc, that’s not true. I’m in _complete_ control. PTSD or lack thereof and everything. Always have been, always will be.”

Lily stared at him, unable to comprehend that he’d compared her to a murderous bastard. She was just trying to _help_!

She wanted to start a fire and now she had a blaze.

“ _He_ was an asshole who was trying to manipulate you!” she cried, her voice growing louder to counter his, “going to therapy isn’t a sign of _weakness_ , you nimrod! I’ve had students come and _talk_ to me about their therapy session, the ones I’m closer to anyway, and I can _see_ how much it helps them. Getting help and helping others _doesn’t_ have to be mutually exclusive!” by now, her voice was becoming shrilly and Lily could feel the threat of tears coming on, “at least that _bastard_ wasn’t afraid to say the truth-“

“What, to my face?” Stark cut in, “that he had a _point_?”

“People can be wrong in their motives and right in their ideas, Stark. _I_ happen to be right in both. I _understand_ there’s very real issues here. You may have be a genius, but you’re _not_ the first person ever to face PTSD. However you’re trying to build your way out of this, it’s not going to work,” despite the tightness in her throat, Lily forced her voice to lessen in volume, “trust me, I know.”

“You don’t understand,” he countered, sweeping past her quiet admission, “ _I_ inherited this company, _I_ made a name for myself. _I’m_ the genius. Whatever I’ve done in my life, no one else has been able to do. _You’ve_ never had to live up to a name. If I can’t handle that by myself, then I’m the _disappointment_.”

He was breathing heavily after his tirade, but the spark in his brown eyes still blazed as he watched her stand there dumbly, “so go ahead, look me in the eyes and tell me what a _disappointment_ I am. I’m sure I’ve missed all of your expectations. Wouldn’t be any different than my dear old dad, anyway.”

Lily stilled, the hot anger suddenly turning cold, and she was dimly aware that she didn’t really feel anything anymore. All she could see in front of her was Tony Stark, the man who was supposed to be her soulmate, to stand by her, and how he didn’t even seem to care about himself.

She took a shaky breath, “you want to compare me to a murderous bastard? Fine. Your father? Sure. You’re right, I don’t really know what it’s like to be you, and I maybe never will. But I _do_ have a good idea of how you treat your inferiors, and I can see _exactly_ the kind of person you are. So, you can judge me all you want, but take a good, long look in the mirror first.”

 _She wouldn’t cry in front of him_. All these years of waiting, hoping to find her soulmates had ended in a rain of fire-y hell and this was it. She’d said she would do whatever it took to see where they stood.

And she had. But, she hadn't found a spark.

Instead, they were two forces of magnitudes that would never meet. Opposing poles, forever destined to repel one another.

The engine to her car started in the darkness of the garage and she slowly pulled out of her spot, heading for the entrance. The road in front of her was blurry with unshed tears but she didn't pause to focus her vision. She didn’t know where she was going or what she would do when she got there, but it didn’t really matter anyway, did it?

 _She was floating_.


	6. The End of the World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What goes up must come down

**Day 20**

Lily didn’t know where she was when she stopped driving. All she knew was that the sun had finally broken over the horizon and she physically couldn’t bring herself to focus on the road anymore. So, she pulled over to a pit stop in the middle of nowhere.

She still felt numb as if she was in someone else’s body, living someone else’s life. She thought about calling her parents to talk things over, but they wouldn’t understand. They were happily married and didn’t even _know_ \- still- that she’d even found her soulmates.

She thought about calling Natasha since the woman had convinced her to move in with Tony in the first place but this idea was rejected immediately. While they were good friends, this problem wasn't something they could solve together. They were close, yes, but not _quite_ close enough. Not for matters of the soul.

Then the idea came to her: _Bruce._

He picked up first ring although he sounded slightly groggy when he greeted her, “hello?”

“B? I started a fire.”

\--

Emptiness was a feeling he was used to and it was what he felt now as he stared off into nothingness.

He’d just compared Maywell- _Lily_ (yes, he did know her name)- to the two worst people in his life. She didn’t deserve that, he knew. Her intervention had taken him by surprise and he didn’t like being cornered, forced to admit things he wasn’t ready to admit to even _himself_.

He sighed, “Jarvis?”

“Yes Mr. Stark?”

“The Doc speaks to you, right?”

“Yes Sir.”

“Pull up the recordings, would you?”

_“Sir-“_

“ _Jarvis_ ” he stressed back.

“Pulling up the recordings”

He needed to find _something_ that would confirm he was right. That she was just a manipulative, nagging bastard who was trying to get involved in his life to mess it up. Anything would do.

_Day 1_

_“Mr. J?”_

_“Yes, Doctor Maywell?”_

_“Can you do anything?”_

_Jarvis’ response sounded amused, “I am limited to non-bodily functions but essentially, yes.”_

_“That’s so cool!” her voice sounded genuinely excited, “I mean, I know we’ve spoken before at the Tower, but are you the same AI or, like his twin or something?”_

_If Jarvis could have laughed, he would have, “I am the internet, Doctor. There is only one version of me.”_

_“Wow,” her voice sounded awed, “and Tony made you, right?”_

_“Yes.”_

_“No wonder people call him a genius. That’s absolutely brilliant.”_

He puzzled over the recording for a second, wondering what had caught his attention, before he realized she’d called him _Tony_. She’d never called him by his first name to his face, except for that one time in New- he shook his head, forcing himself to stop thinking about that and wondered why she didn’t do it in person.

She called Bruce by _his_ first name, after all. He moved to the next one.

_Day 4_

_“Can you also calculate things, Mr. J?”_

_“Of course, madam.”_

_She laughed, “that makes me sound French. No one’s ever called me ‘madam’ before. Speaking of which, how did you know to call me ‘Doctor’? People call me ‘Miss’ all the time and it’s quite irritating. I worked hard for that degree.”_

_“Mr. Stark has input your credentials into my system. I am aware of Dr. Banner’s title as well.”_

_“Oh, well that’s good, I suppose,” she was clearly trying to not be affected by this, “anyway, do I just speak numbers to you and you’ll calculate them or what?”_

_“I am connected to a user interface if you wish to use that, otherwise you may speak the calculations to me and I will store them in my memory.”_

_“…Right.”_

“Jarv?”

“Yes Sir?”

“What are her calculations for?” as far as he was aware, she didn’t really _do_ math.

“Doctor Maywell has been investing time in a physics and engineering degree.”

 _That_ made him pause, “ _what_?”

“She believes it will help her get a better understanding of you and Dr. Banner.”

Something squeezed painfully tight in his chest, _oh_.

_Day 10_

_“Dr. Maywell, are you certain you should still be awake?”_

_Her voice sounded startled, “what? How-“_

_“I can read your user data and sense where resources are being used. All of the lights are on in your room.”_

_“…Oh. Um, yeah I have a test coming up, gotta study. I’m not an all-knowing AI, you know.”_

_“Sleep will also help with your focus. It has been statistically proven that-“_

_“Yeah, yeah, I know,” her voice cut across Jarvis’, “it’s just, I don’t really like sleeping.”_

_“May I ask why?”_

_“Nightmares,” came her simple response._

_“Ah. Have you tried talking to someone about this?”_

_“I’ve looked into it, yeah, but I didn’t really have time between New York and California. Besides, how do I explain wormholes and glowing, unearthly object? And, you know, not being completely human?”_

_“I’m sure they would be able to understand the root of your fears, Dr. Maywell. I can recommend some of SHIELD’s most trusted therapists if you’d like.”_

_“Really?”_

_“You are an employee of SHEILD, yes?”_

_“Well, more like a part time, unhelpful contracted person.”_

_“Unhelpful, Doctor?”_

_“Yeah, well, I was able to tell them everything the first day and haven’t really said much since. It goes along with the theme of my uselessness, I guess.”_

_“I am sure a therapist would understand that particular feeling.”_

“What’s the glowing blue object, Jarv?”

“…I think you should have Doctor Maywell explain.”

_Day 17_

_“Can you die from not sleeping, Mr. J?”_

_“Neither you nor Mr. Stark are in danger of dying from insomnia.”_

_“Damn. Guess I better find another way then.”_

_“…Is this a joke? If not, I would have to inform you that-“_

_“It’s a joke, Mr. J. I don’t really want to die- not yet at least. I just can’t be killed in any normal way, so I’d have to do something like stay awake for 100 hours.”_

_She sighed, “I know what’s keeping me up at night but I just wish that he’d talk to someone. I barely know anything about him but even people with two eyes can see how much is riding on his shoulders. Besides, he could afford the best care in the world. Do you know how many people could use something like that?”_

_“Mr. Stark is very selective with who he includes in his personal life- here, she snorted and muttered, “tell me about it”- he believes that if people saw who he, quote, ‘really is, they would run like hell.’”_

_“It’s a good thing I’m invincible, then. Fire can’t hurt me, and I could walk through hell unscathed. People always forget, though, since it’s not a showy power like the Iron Man suit or something.”_

_“I’m not even going to ask if I make him happy. I don’t need an AI to tell me that I don’t. He has Pepper for that, where I’ll never-“_

“Off,” Tony snapped, “turn it off.”

Jarvis complied, the audio going silent.

Tony breathed quietly to steady himself before he said “fuck” very quietly, and then, “Jarvis, call Pepper.”

\--

_“Do you want me to come down there, Lil?”_

Lily sighed, watching the sun slowly come up over the horizon. The place she’d pulled over was a run-down little restaurant located on a cliff above the ocean so despite her feelings, she at least had an epic view.

She’d have _loved_ for Bruce to fly out and smooth things over but Bruce on a plane wasn’t great unless it was absolutely necessary, “I’m a big girl, B, I should take care of this on my own.”

She’d already told him everything that had happened, after all. There wasn’t much more she could do.

_“Yes, but you shouldn’t have to sacrifice your dignity.”_

“So you think I’m right?”

_“You were trying to help him, Lil. I know that. Tony might be a jerk right now but eventually he’ll come around.”_

Lily rolled her eyes, “yeah right. Anyway, what am I supposed to do now? I can’t go back there.”

(Okay, maybe she couldn’t do this _completely_ on her own.)

_“You could come back home if you want. Or I could drive out there and meet you somewhere.”_

Lily smiled slightly at the image of Bruce on a surfboard, “California’s not really your scene.”

_“Maybe not the beach, but they have labs there, too.”_

She huffed a laugh, “I think I’m going to get something to eat, get some gas and drive around a bit more.”

_“Alright, Lil, but don’t do anything stupid. I don’t need you guys to get into anymore trouble before you come back.”_

\--

Lily spent the day walking around the little spot she’d found. It really was quite a scenic view and now that she’d talked to Bruce, she _almost_ felt normal again. It helped that he kept sending reassuring waves through their bond.

Around four pm, she started getting hungry and so she decided to eat at the run-down dive which was as dark inside as she’d thought it would be. It was only one room with a hallway to the bathrooms and a kitchen attached. The bar stood across from the entrance and ran most of the length of the wall.

There were only three seats occupied with an older, white-haired man and a dad with apparently his teenage son. Four tops and wooden benches-and-tables made up the rest of the seating, matching the brown, brown, brown décor of the restaurant.

Lily sat down in the middle of the bar on one of the slightly sticky, red, plastic-covered stools. Almost immediately, a teenage boy came out of the kitchens and greeted her, asking for her order. After a moment, she decided on a BLT sandwich, fries, and a beer. She didn’t usually drink in the middle of the afternoon but she thought the change was justified.

As she waited for her meal, the small TV to the left showed rocky footage of someplace in the Middle East and rapid subtitles of what was being said on the muted audio of the screen. 

\--

She didn’t hear someone join her at the bar but that was par for the course now. Lily had planned her escape wonderfully and brought both her phone _and_ headphones with her so she was currently nursing her second beer and (ironically) listening to _Brandy_. She jumped when someone tapped her shoulder.

Pulling her earbuds out of her ears, Lily stared at the dark-haired man next to her. Stark didn’t even seem perturbed by her discomfort and reached over to grab one of her fries.

“What are you doing here?” was the first thing out of her mouth.

Tony popped the fry into his mouth and grimaced, “you eat these things? They’re terrible,” he waved to one of the employees, “yeah, hi, can we get a fresh batch?”

The teenage boy from earlier stared at him, “you- you’re- you-“

“Yeah, Tony Stark,” he waved at the fries, “new ones, kid?”

“Y-yes, of course Mr. Stark,” the boy said, jumping into action and rushing off to the kitchens.

“Seriously, how did you find me?”

Tony reached over and ate another fry, “put a GPS tracker in your car,” he answered casually, “you asked for one, remember?”

She stared at him, “yeah, to find my way around your _mansion_. That’s a little creepy.”

He shrugged, reaching to grab another, “how else am I supposed to find you if you’re in danger?”

Lily gently slapped his hand away from her fries, “if you don’t like them, don’t eat them,” she said sternly, before, “I’m invincible, remember? I don’t-“

“Oh, so you’re being hypocritical now?”

She flushed, “that’s _different_. What are you doing here anyway? I thought I reminded you of all the worst people in your life. Shouldn’t you be 10,000 miles away or something?”

He grimaced as the boy placed their new fries down, “yeah, that wasn’t cool of me. Very not cool. Pepper talked some sense into me, that’s why I’m here. To, uh, apologize.”

She gave him a disbelieving look before _‘Pepper_ ’ registered, and she turned her head forward to face the dark wall, “right.”

“Am I not doing this right? I’m not, am I?” he paused, snapping his fingers when the answer apparently came to him, “was it when I mentioned Pepper? Women don’t like men talking about other women, or something like that, right?”

Lily sighed, “no, that’s not it. You haven’t even _said_ ‘I’m sorry,” she put air quotes around the last words.

“Oh, well then-“

She put her hand up, stopping him, “I don’t want to hear an empty apology.”

“Right. Well, do you want to get out of here? Leave this dump?”

She gave a little nod, then reached into her jacket pocket for her wallet. He put his hand out to stop her, “I’ve got it.”

“What?”

“It’s a sandwich and fries, I got it.”

Lily watched him pull out a wad of cash and stand up, “let’s go, then.”

“…Aren’t you going to get change?”

He actually looked _confused,_ “change? Nah, I’m sure they could use it,” and he hesitated for a moment before saying more quietly, “and besides, someone told me to take a look in the mirror and pay attention to how I treat my inferiors-“

Almost against her will, Lily felt her lips quirk up slightly, “I didn’t really mean monetarily, but it’s a good start.”

Once they stepped outside, they paused, “where to next, then?”

“We can walk along the cliffs.”

He gave her a sideways look, “not thinking about jumping off, are you?”

Lily snorted, “the fall wouldn’t kill me. It would be purely for the adrenaline rush.”

They started walking, the evening wind whipping around their clothes lightly, “what’s with the jacket, anyway?” he asked, “is it like a safety blanket or something?”

Lily shrugged, “I just like it, is all. I think I look cool.” _It was a silly, childish notion, but it was also the jacket she’d met her soulmates in and the one Bruce had briefly worn._ _She wasn’t about to tell him that, though_.

“I could get you a better one, you know, real leather and all that.”

She gave him a playful glare, “this _is_ real leather, for your information. I got it when I went to Italy.”

He seemed startled at that, “you’ve been to Italy?”

“Yeah. You’re not the only one who’s traveled the world.”

“What did you go for?”

“Ancient Rome. It was a study abroad program at NYU so I went as part of my archaeology degree.”

Stark was quiet for a moment before he said in a voice so soft, she almost missed it, “I wanted to take you guys there.”

Lily blinked, “what? Take who guys?” then a beat passed and the realization hit her, “me and Bruce?”

Stark looked uncomfortable and she thought he wasn’t going to answer but he gave a jerky little nod, “I didn’t know it was ‘you and Bruce’ at the time, just that whoever my soulmates were, I wanted to bring them there.”

Lily was pretty sure her heart stopped in her chest for a second. _He’d said ‘soulmates.’_ It was the first time she’d heard that word coming from his mouth, the closest they’d ever been to _talking_ about the subject and she was almost afraid she’d push it too far, “oh.”

“What happened in Italy, anyway?”

Her brow furrowed slightly, “I told-“

“Not your Italy, my Italy,” he interrupted, “I went when I was twenty.”

Lily quickly did the math on that and she stopped walking for a second as she carefully said, “um, when I was fifteen?”

He shrugged, “I guess. Something happened that summer.”

She didn’t notice him steal a glance at her as she chewed her lip, “um, yeah. That’s when I got my powers. How’d you know?”

Stark looked straight ahead as he said bluntly, “you died.”

This time, Lily _did_ stop walking as she stared at him in shock, “ _what_?”

He turned slightly so he could see her face, but looked more fully towards the horizon, “you died.”

“My _god_ , that’s what happened?” her voice already held the telltale signs of tears.

Now Stark turned to face her in surprise, “what happened to _you_?”

Her eyes were wide as she looked at him, “I suppose I did die, in a way,” she said slowly, “I stopped being human. And became, well, _Inhuman_.”

“You became In-what-now?”

“Inhuman. It’s, like the X-men as you said,” she gave a sudden, little smile as she remembered, “only certain people have the right gene, and it gives them abilities. It’s a whole, secret race. Sort of cult-like, you know,” her expression shadowed slightly, “not everyone’s lucky, though.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“The- the change,” she explained hesitantly, “it’s, well, like Medusa’s power- you know her, right?” at his puzzled nod, she continued, “well, it’s like a caterpillar-butterfly-transformation-meets-Medusa’s-powers sort of thing, but the point is there’s these glowing, unearthly objects that when you touch them, activate some gene. There’s this rock chrysalis-“ Lily paused, fragments of her nightmares coming back to her, the feeling of rock creeping up her legs-

She lifted her own legs in present day, just to make sure they weren’t glued to the ground. She didn’t notice Stark start to reach for her hand and abruptly pull back as she continued, “well, there’s this chrysalis, which I guess is when I died, and if you have the gene, you can break free. Other- otherwise, well, you-“

“You’re a statue?” he helpfully supplied.

Lily nodded. This wasn’t something she talked about, even in the light of day. Or at all, ever.

“So how’d you, you know, become an X-man?”

“Know what my power was?” she asked, and continued when he nodded, “um, well. We were in Brazil, my father had taken me there as a present to help him with the dig. There’d been reports about stone people in the area. A myth, we thought. And, well, you know what happened,” she gestured to herself, “but, well, there was a rebel group that didn’t like foreigners being there, so as we were packing up, they open fired on us.”

“My god, Blondie.”

She gave him a tight smile, “yeah, well, there was this one kid, an intern, I think. He didn’t speak English, but that doesn’t matter. Anyway, he tried to defend himself, y’know, ‘cause archaeologists are great marksmen. Well, I- I don’t really know what happened, but I could, I could _sense_ the bullet coming for him. And, well, I did the only thing I could think of and threw myself in front of it.”

This time, Stark didn’t pull away when he reached for her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, but Lily was too lost in the memory to notice, “I _felt_ it hit me. I thought that was it, that I was going to die. But I didn’t,” she took a deep breath, “I couldn’t really process it at the time, but I wasn’t hurt. There wasn’t even a _bruise_. It should have killed me, but it didn’t.”

Tony couldn’t even _imagine_ what it would have felt like had she died for real. Her “death” had only been minutes- if that- and it had _still_ been the worst moment of his life at that point. It was still in the top ten.

“How are you _okay_ after all that?” he asked. There was a slightly rougher quality to his voice, “I mean, I _know_ what it’s like to be in open fire, but at _fifteen_? God-“

Lily blinked, her blue eyes focusing back in on his face, “I’m not,” she said simply, interrupting him, tired of hiding everything, “for nights afterward, I had nightmares about it. And- and,” she struggled, her mouth drying quickly as she remembered some of her worst nightmares.

Stark squeezed her hand again and opened his mouth, presumably to say that she didn’t have to tell him, but she _did_. He _needed_ to know he wasn’t alone, that other people went through similar things, so she forced herself to finish, “and the _worst_ ones were with you and Bruce.”

“Not you guys exactly,” she amended quietly, “but people who I knew stood _for_ you. And, well, yeah,” she finished lamely, unable to _completely_ finish her thought. She hoped he knew what she meant.

“Anyway, now that I’ve told you my life story, it’s-“

He shook his head, “I don’t think we’re close enough for that, Blondie.”

Lily couldn’t have hidden the hurt on her face if she tried.

Stark winced, gently squeezing her hand again, “that’s not, that’s not what I meant. I mean, eventually, maybe, if you really want to hear it, but-“

Lily sighed, knowing that she wasn’t going to win this fight, “it’s alright, Stark, I get it.”

“Why do you call me that, anyway?”

“What?”

“Stark,” he clarified, “my surname.”

“Oh, well, emotional distancing, y’know. Don’t want to get too attached.”

He was quiet for a moment.

“You’re not my father.”

“Damn right.”

“You’re not Obie.”

“Glad you can make that distinction.”

He hesitated, watching her face for something she didn’t understand, before he said “I’m sorry.”

Lily blinked in surprise at the sincerity in his voice and said “me too.”

“Are you coming back?”

She hesitated for a moment before nodding.

It wasn’t a fix. It was a patch, at best, and nothing had been resolved, but it was, at least, the end of their old world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the comments last chapter! 
> 
> I'm glad you're enjoying the story; I was a little uncertain about the last update which is why it took me longer to publish it, but I'm glad it was well-received.


	7. (Not Quite) Everything You've Ever Wanted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things improve, but only slightly- and then they take a turn for the worse.

**Day 23**

The second time her door opened at two am, a shouting match fortunately did not follow. Tony had been on his way between rooms when he’d seen the light under her door. As much as he’d tried to convince himself to keep out of her business, his feet had acted on their own accord and then her door was open.

She was sitting in the same place the night of their argument, her back to the door and bent over the papers sprawled around the table. She also still didn’t acknowledge him and was probably listening to some type of music.

He made his way over to the three-seater table and sat down in the seat that faced the wall, reaching over to gently pull one of her earbuds out.

Lily startled at the loss of full-on music and looked up with wide eyes as Stark put the bud in _his_ ear, “hey! I _happened_ to be listening to that!”

He made a shushing sound and waved his hand around in the vicinity of her face, his own showing concentration as he tried to figure out the song. When he apparently couldn’t, he pulled the bud out and made a face, “how can you even listen to these things? Sound comes through for you?”

“ _Yes_ sound comes through,” she said, slightly irritated as she took her earbud back, “you can’t recognize ‘Come and Get Your Love’?”

He shrugged, “not my style.”

Then he seemed to notice what she was working on and pulled one of her papers over for a better look, ” _hey_!” she exclaimed frantically, lunging to try and grab it, “I’m working on that!”

Stark easily held it out of her reach as his eyes scanned the paper, gently tipping his chair back to avoid her hands, “didn’t anyone ever teach you it was rude to grab?”

Lily huffed, purposely avoiding meeting his eyes and didn’t respond. Instead, she crossed her arms over her chest and (childishly) let her hair swing in front of her face to hide her embarrassment.

“I don’t know if you’re aware, but these are Physics problems, Blondie.”

Her skin prickled slightly and she was faintly aware that he was looking at her, “I know.”

“What are you doing with Physics problems?” _(Just because he knew didn’t mean he didn’t want to hear her admit it.)_

She shrugged, “nothing.”

 _So_ that _was the game they were going to play._

“Fine, fine,” he said easily, setting down the paper, “you know, I thought we had an understanding the other day, I guess I was mis-“

“It’s just really embarrassing, okay?” she interrupted him. Lily cringed inwardly. _Dammit, dammit, dammit. I sound like a loser._

She could almost _hear_ his smirk, “I’m sure it’s not that bad. You want another doctorate? Trying to compete with Banner, are you? ‘Cause I’ve got to say, you _might_ be biting off more than you can chew, especially where his _little friend_ is concerned.”

Lily felt her face redden. _Damn Stark and his stupid innuendos._ “That’s not it,” she said quickly, “it’s just not something you like to talk about.”

“Try me.”

“If I wanted another doctorate, I would _never_ try for one in Physics,” Lily actually shuddered a little at that. The idea was _not_ appealing, “it’s just, it’s super, super lame,” she _really_ didn’t want to say it, but out with it, she supposed, “um, well, it’s-“

“Take your time, Blondie. No need to have a coronary.”

“I just want to be able to relate to you,” she blurted out, “I mean, I’m _not_ trying to wiggle my way into your life or anything, it’s just that you and Ba- _Bruce_ have this science thing, and well, I sort of wanted in on it, but I’ll never catch up to you guys, so it’s really, really pointless,” she sighed, “useless, really, like everything else. There, you can laugh.”

She waited for his inevitable mockery, to do _something_ that she expected from him but to her surprise, he didn’t.

Instead, he picked up the paper again and pointed to it, “you forgot to carry your one here. Otherwise you’d be right,” he glanced at the crumpled papers on the ground and picked one up, smoothing it out, “you don’t give yourself enough credit, Blondie. Yeah, you’re not a genius like me, but who is?” his winning smile was lost on her as she continued to avoid his gaze, “but seriously, you’ve got potential.”

 _That_ caused her to look up, staring at him in disbelief. _Tony Stark thought she had_ potential _. Who else got to hear that?_ “R-really?” she cursed at her stutter, “I mean, you’re not just saying that?”

“When do I ever ‘just say things?’” he had the audacity to look offended.

“Literally every day,” she began to tick things off on her fingers, “to get out of things you don’t want to do, flattery gets you everywhere, trying to get someone else to do your work-“

“Okay, okay, I get it,” he said, holding up his hand, “no need to air my dirty laundry. I haven’t done chores a day in my life. Let’s get you to the top of the class, shall we?”

She pretended to be hurt, “and what says I’m not already there?”

“You’re just now recruiting my help,” he said smugly, as if that answered everything (it did.)

\--

**Day 30**

“Do you want to see my suits?”

Lily jumped- the irony of their switched places didn’t escape her- and she turned to see Stark standing in the doorway. There was something _off_ about his features and he was regarding her warily, as if she’d be able to pinpoint what was wrong. She frowned at that. _Hadn’t he just been at lunch with Rhodey?_ While she still hadn’t met Stark’s friend himself, she knew his importance in the newest military campaign against the terrorist threats. Had something happened while Stark was out?

“Um, I’ve seen them before?”

He cracked a smile at that, “you’ve seen _one_ before. Not even the best one, no offense to Mark seven, but he still needed some work. A little slow on the uptake, you know?”

“…I guess?” her answer came out as more of a question and she followed him down to the lab.

It didn’t look unusual, so she didn’t really know why he meant ‘suits,’ as the normal parts were scattered over the workbench. It was impressive, but not usually _his_ level of impressive.

“You’re really messy, you know that, right?” she asked.

He rolled his eyes, “that’s why I have DUM-E. Turns out he’s not a great cleaner.”

They stopped in the middle of the room where the floor was slightly different, “Jarvis?”

“Yes, Sir.”

They went _down._

"Holy _shit_ , you have a secret lair?” Lily couldn’t help the excitement in her voice, “that is so _cool_!”

He smirked, “I don’t know why that surprises you. I happen to be _very_ cool.”

Almost two stories down, bright, showcase lights flooded the area as the platform finally settled. There was a faint _whirring_ noise as panels slid backwards revealing more than just _‘suits’_ but what seemed like _hundreds_ (it was really only thirty-four, as Lily found out.)

“Meet the Iron Legion, Doc,” Stark said, grandly sweeping his arm around the room.

She found she could only say “ _holy shit”_ again. There were so _many_ , of all different colors, sizes, models. Lily had never really been into cars or anything similar, but _now_ she could see the appeal.

Tony watched her take in the sight with wide eyes, feeling strangely pleased about her reaction, “you know, Doc, you’re the first person to lay eyes on _these_ particular babies. Everyone knows about the upstairs ones but these are a juicy little secret I’ve managed to keep. Until now, anyway.”

“Can I… can I look at them?”

“Of course. This is a ‘please touch’ museum.”

She went to the one directly across from them, pressing her face against the glass as if that would give her better vision. It was the traditional Iron Man look but with blue-and-bronze instead of the red-and-gold, “does this one have a name?”

“Uh, Protector.”

Lily turned at his suddenly awkward tone, “what does it do? I’m guessing not the same as your other one?”

“You’d be right about that. It, uh, protects. I built force fields in it instead of blasters. Not much help in a fight but as defense, well, it’s pretty much the top of the line.”

She blinked, looking back at the suit, “so it’s like me, then? I mean, not that I’m egotistical enough to-“

“It’s like you,” he confirmed, cutting her off.

“Do you have suits that mirror _all_ of the Avengers’ powers?”

“…I didn’t actually think of that,” he admitted, “probably just happened ‘cause you were living with me.”

She could sense he wanted to change the subject, so she moved to the next one, “which one’s your favorite?”

He snorted, “that’s like asking who your favorite student is. But, it’s definitely this one,” he tapped the glass on the one he meant, “Flamethrower. Doesn’t actually throw flames, though. I thought it might be a work hazard especially around explosives.”

“That was intuitive of you,” Lily said lightly, teasingly, “to _think_ we could’ve start _actual_ fires that Bruce would have to put out.”

He chuckled a bit at that, and then they spent a good hour with the remaining suits. Standing back from the display, Lily looked at one they hadn’t been to yet, “and who’s that, over there?” she asked, pointing to the silver-and-green suit, “are you a fan of _Harry Potter_ or something?”

“I’ve never read _Harry Potter_ in my life.”

She stared at him, “and you claim to be _cool_?”

“Do you want to know about the suit or not?”

She huffed, so he continued, “thought so. This one’s Diyu, I built a special emergency system in him. Super level of computing power since I probably wouldn’t use him very much. Only for areas of exposure, so I figured I’d only be there if it was necessary. So, you know, he’ll keep going if I don’t.”

“…what?”

“If I die in this suit, it’ll keep going until mission’s finished or it’s destroyed,” Stark answered bluntly, not taking his eyes off of his creation.

Lily’s blood turned to ice. Dying was a very _real_ possibility for anyone on the Avenger’s team, except maybe her and Bruce when he was in the Hulk’s form. Even then, she wasn’t sure if he was as invulnerable as she was.

“You’re not using this one,” she said, trying for a firm tone, but her voice cracked at the end.

She could see his expression turn confused in the glass, “come again?”

“You _can’t_ use it,” she said, unable to keep the plea out of her voice, “it’s… it’s bad luck, like planning your funeral before you die, y’know? Just… just-“

“Hey, it’s okay, Doc,” he started, reaching out to comfort her, but he pulled back quickly. He didn’t really understand the sudden catch in her voice but it wasn’t like he _needed_ to wear the suit, “I won’t use it, okay? I can get rid-“

Lily was already shaking her head, “you don’t have to, he’s part of your group-thing. Just, just don’t use it. Ever. Even if you think you have to don’t, okay?”

He still looked confused but he nodded anyway, “no worries, Blondie, I won’t. Scout’s honor.”

His phone rang then, interrupting the silence of the basement. He glanced at the screen, giving her an apologetic look, “gotta take this, Doc, sorry.”

Lily nodded, unable to speak as she stared at the suit in front of her. Stark wandered some ways away, talking to someone. She didn’t know why it was such a shock to her that he’d have this type of suit. They’d faced the jaws of death before and she hadn’t been _too_ concerned for his safety.

 _Except for the wormhole_ , a little voice in her head reminded her.

She blinked, and suddenly she was standing on top of Stark Tower, Natasha’s voice in her ear, _“We can close it! Can anybody copy? We can shut the portal down.”_

The feel of the comm in her hand, then her ear, _“Hey, Blondie. I’m sorry this wasn’t able to work out differently, but you know I don’t have a choice, right? You’ll be happy with Bruce, at least, happier than you would be with me- I promise.”_

Then Romanov started closing the portal. The suit in front of her blurred as the sky above her had that day as she’d _hoped_ and _wished_ for something to happen, _anything_ , because they’d only just met, he _couldn’t_ be-

A hand landed on her shoulder, startling her out of her flashback.

Lily whirled around, knocking off whoever was touching her- ready to _fight_ if necessary- but then she blinked and Tony Stark was looking at her shakily, “there’s been a Mandarin attack at the Chinese Theaters.”

Still foggy, it took her a moment to come back to the present, “… the orange guy? The fruit? But-“

“Happy was there,” he said, his voice cracking, “he’s in critical condition, they don’t know-“

 _Happy_. For a moment, she thought he meant the emotion. Then she remembered his security guard, whom she’d only met once, a big man who did _not_ live up to his name. He’d been with St- _Tony_ for as long as Rhodey or Pepper had, if not longer.

Lily tried reaching for him, uncertain of what was happening, but Stark pushed her away, “no, don’t, I’m trying not to…” he stepped away from her, blinking rapidly, “I just- I just need to be able to _think_ straight, I need a game plan. If- if Happy doesn’t _make_ it-“

She stared uselessly as the man in front of her had a mental breakdown. _Mental breakdown,_ she thought suddenly, _right, panic attack_. She hadn't known he had those, though. She shepherded him back onto the circular platform and prompted Jarvis to take them back to the lab.

Once they reached the main floor, Lily tried to get his attention, “Stark,” she said firmly. When his breathing didn’t even out, she repeated his name, “ _Stark_.”

She sighed, preparing herself to lose the emotional barrier she’d tried to construct between them, “ _Tony_.”

The sound of his name caused his head to snap up, looking at her with wide, slightly unfocused eyes.

Lily had no idea what to do to bring him back but she was going to _try_. She recalled some of her students talking to her after class about things like this because apparently she was a good teacher, seemed like a trustworthy person and they could talk to her and feel comfortable enough to do so. One girl had said something about being ‘grounded,’ so that’s what she tried to do.

“Okay, Tony, I need you to listen to me,” she fought to keep her voice steady and calm, knowing that additional panic _wouldn’t_ help, “we need you here, okay? Happy needs you, Pepper needs you, you’re going to see them soon,” if Happy was in the hospital, Pepper, as Tony’s girlfriend, was almost certainly going to be there. Lily paused, then added more quietly, “ _I_ need you. Can you give me a nod if you’re hearing my voice?”

It was small, almost barely imperceptible, but she saw it. _Progress._ Another one of her students had said they stayed focused when facts were repeated to them since it cleared their mind.

“I’m going to need you to repeat after me, okay Tony? It’s alright if it takes a moment, so just do your best, okay?”

There was another nod, so she continued, “your name is Tony Stark.”

“….Tony Stark,” he repeated quietly.

“We’re in Malibu, California.”

“Malibu. California.”

“It’s-“ she glanced out the window to gauge the sun, “late afternoon.”

“Late Afternoon.”

“We’re going to find out who did this,” this, she said firmly.

“We’re going to find out who did this,” Tony repeated, agreeing.

She scanned his face, trying to make sure he was at least _back._ His eyes looked better, anyway. His breathing had evened out, too.

There was just one more thing she needed him to know.

“You’re not alone.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, thanks for all the comments from last chapter! I'm glad people are enjoying the story! This one I'm also a little uncertain about but I wanted to post it anyway since I don't think it's going to get any better.
> 
> I've come to the conclusion that this will be finished up by July 31st since that's when the second season of my favorite show airs and I want to be free to write for that after I finish watching it. That being said, expect an update every five days or so depending on how much time I have to do final edits. 
> 
> After I'm done writing for the show, I'll come back to this for the third installment which should be about late August/early September-ish and that's the plan for now. We'll see how it goes!


	8. The Next Step

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There’s another fire. This time, it’s more real. Tony and Lily call for back up.

True to her guess, Lily had been right and Pepper Potts was waiting for them outside of Happy’s hospital room. While she’d never met the woman before, the redhead lived up to everything the blonde had heard about her. Even at six o’clock at night, the CEO of Stark Industries was dressed in an immaculate pantsuit and looked more put-together than Lily had ever felt.

After greeting Tony with a long kiss that made Lily study her feet while she tried to ignore the nausea that rolled in her stomach, the redhead finally turned to look at her, “are you going to introduce us, Tony?” she asked pointedly.

The blonde looked up to see the other woman’s face settled in a polite expression with a friendly smile spread across it but on a closer look, she could see that her _blue_ eyes (the similarity didn’t escape her) were unwelcoming. Lily reached a hand up to tug anxiously on her blonde hair, still loose from the comfortable day she’d had cooped up in Tony’s home.

The man in question startled slightly at the address before gesturing between them, “Pepper, the Do- uh, Lily. Doc, Pepper.”

She tried not to wince at the jumbled introduction and stuck her own hand out, “Doctor Lily Maywell, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’ve heard _many_ good things about you.”

They always said to kill ‘em with kindness, after all. Even if she knew instinctively that she and Pepper were never going to get along, they could, at least, pretend to for Tony’s sake.

Luckily, Pepper was as smart as everyone always said and caught on to what she was doing. A little of the ice melted from her eyes as she shook the blonde’s hand, their grips equally firm and strong, “Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries. I must say I’ve barely heard anything about _you_. I didn’t realize Happy had other… friends.”

Lily shifted uncomfortably and did her best to hold the other woman’s gaze until she eventually looked away, “I'm, um, not. His friend, I mean,” that sounded rude, “I'm just, well- transportation, I guess,” her gaze shifted between the two of them and their joined hands didn’t escape her notice, “I suppose I’ll be going now.”

Pepper flashed another faux-cheerful smile, “well, safe driving, _Doctor_. I’ll make sure Tony’s well taken care of, so there’s no need-“

“Pep,” Tony’s quiet voice cut through her pleasantry, causing her to falter.

The redhead’s piercing blue gaze turned on the man next to her, “we need to talk.”

The dark-haired man met Lily’s gaze with a sheepish look, “looks like I’m in trouble. Stick around, though, Doc. There’s no need for you to hop off just yet.”

The two disappeared into the Happy’s hospital room leaving the blonde to her own devices. To give them space, she paced away from the door and down the hall, trying to keep her thoughts together. Pepper was even more formidable than Tony had made her out to be but luckily Lily didn’t feel completely humiliated so she gave herself a pat on the back for acting like a grown woman and not a child. She had no claim to Tony’s happiness, anyway, and it was probably better that someone he _really_ cared about was there to support him instead of, well, her.

* * *

Lily had never spent so much time in a hospital. Twelve hours was her new record, although she _had_ left to get food. Stark hadn’t eaten much but that wasn’t surprising as Pepper, who was probably the only one who could’ve gotten him to do anything, had left a few hours ago since she still had work the next day.

They hadn’t spoken in hours but that wasn’t new. The uneasiness from the redhead’s appearance was, though and Lily could feel it weighing heavily between them, neither really willing to start talking about it. Nor, of course, was this the place to.

Stark had sat in the same chair since they’d arrived in Happy’s room where the man had looked like he’d taken _considerable_ damage. Lily was slightly worried that Stark was going to do something stupid. At least he had an invincible person on his side, she supposed.

Finally, she broke the silence, her voice slightly rough from disuse and bottled emotion, “what are you thinking about doing?”

“Get out of here. Make whoever did this pay. The usual.”

She nodded, not surprised, “what about him?” she asked, gesturing to Happy.

“…He’d probably want me to stay out of trouble. Take a vacation or something.”

Lily studied him for a moment, “and what are you _going_ to do?”

Their eyes met and an understanding seemed to pass between them. For the first time in nearly twenty-four hours, Tony Stark smiled.

It was more feral than genuine, but it went well with his next words, “start a fire.”

\--

They left the hospital that morning and were greeted by a hoard of reporters who crowded around them, shouting for answers.

“Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark! Our sources are telling us that this is another Mandarin attack. Anything else you can tell us?”

The crowd pressed in and Lily leaned towards Stark’s ear, whispering, _“do we need a shield_?”

She startled as his hand slid into hers and gave it a gentle squeeze as he shook his head slightly at the same time.

As they approached the car, one of the pushier reporters interrupted them, “hey, Mr. Stark! When is somebody gonna kill this guy? Just sayin'.”

They both turned, “is that what you want?” he asked, “here's a little holiday greeting I've been wanting to send to the Mandarin. I just didn't know how to phrase it until now. My name is Tony Stark and I'm not afraid of you.”

Lily took a deep breath, knowing where he was going with this. _Hopefully, their backup would come in time._ His hand was still in hers, though, so she gave it a gentle squeeze in return, reassuring him that she was on _his_ side- that they were a united front against the crowd of reporters.

He continued as if nothing happened, “I know you're a coward, so I've decided that you just died, pal. I'm gonna come get the body. There's no politics here; it's just good old-fashioned revenge. There's no Pentagon; it's just you and me. And on the off-chance you're a man, here's my home address: 10-8-80, Malibu Point, 9-0-2-6-5. I'll leave the door unlocked.”

Lily jumped in, leaning forward to make sure she was heard, “you could say we’re starting a fire.”

While the line made no sense whatsoever out of context, there were only a few people that would hear it who would understand and that was the important part. They were the only ones that mattered, anyway.

He turned to the reporter, “that's what you wanted, right?” he snatched the phone out of his hand and threw it against the wall, saying, “bill me.”

They got into the car and Lily huffed, “always one for the dramatics, Stark. You know there were hundreds of _other_ reports recording that, right? It’s going to be-“

“All over the news. Yeah, I know how the media works,” he glanced at her before focusing back on the road, “you think Banner will get the message in time?”

She shrugged, “if he doesn’t, he’ll probably have a coronary. At least you’ve got me as back up, right?”

He glanced at her again with a smirk, “you’re not backup, sweetheart. You’re the front line.”

\--

Lily sat on top of one of the lab benches at Stark moved his holograms around while Jarvis was reporting data.

“Okay, what do we got here? His name is an ancient Chinese war mantle, meaning "adviser to the King". South American insurgency tactics talks like a Baptist preacher. There's lots of pageantry going on here...lots of theater.”

She pushed some of the melted ice cream around in the container she was holding, “are we sure he’s not named after the fruit? And what’s this ‘advisor’ business? Shouldn’t he be, like, _the_ king? If he was in charge of all these attacks?”

Stark glanced at her briefly, “it could be a misnomer. Psychos like that sort of thing, or could, I suppose. It wouldn’t be a surprise, anyway.”

“The heat from the blast was in excess of 3000 degrees Celsius. Any subjects within 12.5 yards were vaporized instantly,” Jarvis continued.

Lily pointed a slightly dripping spoon towards the dark-haired man, “what was the temperature of that cube, again? The Tesseract when you said you’d have to break some sort of barrier? Kelvin, was it?”

“120 million Kelvin. And it was a Coolum barrier. Why?”

“Well, what’s the conversion of 3000 degrees Celsius to Kelvin?”

Realization seemed to dawn on him and he nodded in acknowledgement, “3,273-point-fifteen. Not quite enough, but good thought Doc. I wouldn’t be surprised if they _were_ using the Tesseract, but something tells me these guys aren’t connected to HYDRA," to Jarvis, he added "there’s also no bomb parts found in a three mile radius of the Chinese theater.”

“No, sir,” the AI confirmed.

Lily frowned, sticking her spoon back in the ice cream container. She wasn’t a weapons expert but historical studies had taught her that in the aftermath of a bomb, there was usually _something_ left behind. Sometimes, peaceful times after the war could be more dangerous than the _actual_ war with the remnants of explosives.

“Shouldn’t there be parts if he’s using traditional bombs?”

“Generally speaking, yes,” Stark agreed, “let’s see what Happy has to say,” he pulled the screen up “talk to me, Happy.”

Lily jumped off the table and made her way over to better see the screen that appeared on the floor, trying to be as analytical as Stark was. This wasn’t science, after all, just basic observation skills _. “When is a bomb not a bomb?”_ she murmured, trying to see something in the different layers. _What could leave no trace?_

She thought about _her_ own transformation, how there seemed to be no outer difference to a now-could-be-called ‘weaponized’ person. Her eyes landed on a familiar outline. She’d seen them often enough around Steve’s neck, anyway.

“Stark, what about this?” she asked, calling him over.

The man crouched next to her, repeating her question as he scanned in on the item, “when is a bomb not a bomb? Any military victims?”

“Not according to public records, sir.”

“What about _not_ public records?” Lily suggested, which was ignored. She huffed slightly. 

“Bring up the thermogenic signatures again, factor in three thousand degrees.”

Thermometers appeared around the map, “the oracle cloud has completed analysis. Accessing satellites and plotting the last twelve months of thermogenic occurrence now.”

“Take away everywhere that there's been a Mandarin attack,” Stark commanded, watching the information pop up. Nope,” then his eyes caught something, “that. You sure that's not one of his?”

“It predates any known Mandarin attack. The incident was the use of a bomb to assist a suicide.”

“Bring her around. Get up here, Doc. You’re in on this too.”

Lily couldn’t help but feel pleased, following orders as she climbed up to the platform, “the heat signature is remarkably similar. Three thousand degrees Celsius.”

“That's two military guys. Ever been to Tennessee, Doc?”

She grinned, looking up at him, “will we have time to sightsee? Maybe go to Nashville?”

_“Creating a flight plan for Tennessee.”_

“Depends on if we can do our work. Will Banner go on a plane or not, do you think?”

She pulled a face, “Bruce on a plane? Not a smart move, Stark.”

\--

“Right there's fine,” Stark commanded to the woman who’d rung the doorbell, “you're not the Mandarin, are you? Are you?”

Lily remained in her defensive stance, palms flat, ready to project a shield in front of the man despite his armor.

The dark-haired woman seemed exasperated, “you don't remember. Why am I not surprised?”

“Don't take it personally, I don't remember what I had for breakfast.”

“Gluten-free waffles,” Jarvis provided helpfully.

“That's right.”

“Okay, look, I need to be alone with you. Someplace not here, it's urgent,” the woman continued, not caring.

“Normally, I'd go for that sort of thing, but now I'm in a committed relationship,” he turned to see Lily still standing in a tense position, “not with her, though. Someone else.”

 _Ouch, again_. She tried to ignore the sting it sent to her chest. That wasn’t important right now. Perceiving there was no threat, Stark stepped out of his suit.

Lily ignored them, feeling the familiar, stony pit form in her stomach as she thought of _her_ soulmate with other women. _Not my soulmate_ , she reminded herself fiercely, _someone else’s boyfriend._

“Hey, Blondie, you paying attention?” Stark snapped his fingers at her, causing Lily to jump.

“Yeah, yeah,” she hoped her voice was casual enough, “what’s up?”

“What’s up? If you _knew_ what’s up, you wouldn’t have to _ask_ that. Do I have to do everything myself?”

Her eyes flashed, “excuse me, but _I’m_ not the one with the dumb idea to give a _terrorist_ my home address. I’m surprised anyone lets you do anything.”

“Um, well, I _seem_ to recall you encouraging me. Didn’t you say something about me not being alone?”

She flinched, “you were _vulnerable. This,_ ” she swept her arm around the house, “is completely different. Completely _not_ what I had in mind.”

The woman chose to interject, “yeah, frankly, I don't think you'll last the week.”

Both Stark and Lily turned to her and said, “ _shut up!_ ” in unison.

“We’ll be _fine_ ,” Lily insisted.

The dark-haired woman’s expression turned confused, and she pointed between them, “but, I thought you just- you just said-“

Lily glared at her, “I _know_ what I just said, thank you very much, no need to remind me. _I’m_ not the old man with short-term memory loss. Or memory loss in general.”

“Old?” Stark demanded, “who’re you calling _old?_ I _happen_ to be in my prime.”

“Prime old age, you mean. And by the way, should I call Pepper to let her know an old girlfriend stopped by, while we’re on the subject of _old_?”

“She's not really,” Stark protested, before he eyed her critically, “you’re not _jealous,_ are you?”

“No, not really,” Lily said, trying to keep her voice sarcastic, “I mean, she’s saved herself a world of pain.”

The woman looked between the two of them, still perplexed, “I'm sure.”

“ _What?_ ”

“We need to leave,” the woman persisted, trying to get back on track.

“No,” Lily said, sounding more like a petulant child than she would’ve liked.

“The man says no,” Stark agreed.

“Oh, so you’re man of the house, now?” Lily snapped, “I thought that was Jarvis.”

“Thank you for your confidence in me, Doctor Maywell,” the AI chimed in.

Stark threw up his hands, “everyone’s turning on me. _Why_ is everyone turning on me? First my one-night stand, then the live-in hermit and now my AI?”

Lily stared at Stark with wide eyes. _He didn’t really just go there, did he?_ She opened her mouth to respond when she froze, a prickling sensation sweeping over her skin. Her arms tingled and if she looked, Lily was pretty sure her hairs would be standing on end.

“What, Blondie, cat got you tongue?”

“Guys, can we um...” the woman put in, finally being heard in their moment of silence.

“What?”

“Do we need to worry about that?”

They both turned to the TV, which showed a bomb heading straight for the house.

Time seemed to slow down on impact and Lily, Stark and the woman separated as the blast shook the foundations. Lily knew that _she_ would be okay, so the second her body thumped against the wall, she forced her senses back in order.

Time resumed, and, despite the dust and debris, she could locate Stark’s body- _no, not body. Body is used to describe dead people. Which he isn’t. He’s_ not- she shook her head, scrambling over the rubble and threw herself over him, erecting a shield on instinct.

She was just in time, too, because she felt the rain of ceiling plaster hit the glowing blue projection around them. Looking down into the man’s shocked face, she gave him a little smirk, “I got you.”

“I got you first. Like I said, we can't stay here.”

She snorted.

Another bomb shook through the house, blasting easily through the glass windows.

“Move! I'm right behind!”

Lily stared at him incredulously, “you’re kidding, right? You _know_ I’m invincible. I’m probably-“

“What about _her_?”

She glanced over at the woman lying on the floor, “can’t you use your suit on her? _I’m_ not leaving.”

She knew it was selfish. Stupid, really. But Stark, her estranged soulmate, versus some woman he’d had a one night stand with?

Stark won every time.

He seemed to sense there was no point in arguing with her and sounds of whirring metal could be heard over the collapsing of the house. As the now-armored woman was ejected from the house, Lily stood up, giving her hand to the man on the floor.

She was relieved when he took it and didn’t let go once he was on his feet. Lily could barely see for the amount of dust in the air but the floor had given out and most of the glass from the windows had fallen to to make walking treacherous- not to mention the unstable, shaking foundations. Looking up, she could see parts of the ceiling had fallen through and the rest was already on the floor.

“… Renovation season, is it, Stark?”

He gave her an irritated look, stumbling slightly as the house shook again, “you’re making jokes _now_? When we’re in imminent danger?”

The next blast caused the house to dip towards the sea, sending them both to their feet as the slid along the floor. Lily reached blindly for Stark as they followed the pull of gravity, snagging an arm around his waist and pulling him close.

Their slide came to a stop on the window support beam.

“Sir, Miss Hensen is clear of the structure.”

Stark made a rough gesture similar to the one he’d used for the woman- Henson- and Lily took that to assume he was summoning his suit, which was good. She could hold her shields for as long as she needed to but she’d feel reassured if there was an extra layer of protection. Stark wasn’t as invulnerable as she was, as loath as he probably was to admit it.

Her grip around the man’s waist almost disappeared as the suit pieces attached themselves roughly to him. Reciprocating her grip so she wouldn’t get lost, Stark stumbled to his feet and tried to activate his blasters while they slid around the swaying remains of the mansion.

“Jarvis, where's my flight power?” Stark demanded.

Lily didn’t hear the reply as a piano came sliding towards them. She reached out one hand to pull up a shield to protect them but Stark got there first by blasting it to bits and letting it hit one of the helicopters.

“That's one.”

They went sliding again as the rain of fire continued around them, shredding the remaining house and cliff to bits.

The second helicopter Stark had blasted chose to fall directly in the way of the house and Lily only had a minute to tighten her rapidly-slipping grip on the metal suit as the collision caused the two of them to fly forward. That was all it took for the house to finally give way and tilt headlong towards the ocean.

Lily ducked her head as Stark’s possessions exploded around them, gathering strength for when they finally went into the water, prioritizing the use of her powers. Explosions were dangerous, yes, but explosions and then being sent down into the shock of water? Even more so.

Stark might have another one of his panic attacks again, the suit could malfunction, the helicopters might start shooting the _water_ , so in _her_ expert opinion, they had not yet reached the most dangerous part.

It was only when they followed the remainder of Stark’s mansion down towards the ocean did she finally erect her shield, the bright blue blending in with the sky above them and water below.

The force of the impact caused their grip on each other to separate but the shield she’d erected in time kept them close enough to each other.

As they sank, they were bombarded by shifting pieces of rubble. Lily concentrated on condensing the dome to make it smaller, tighter, more compact to avoid being tossed around like a ball in a pinball machine.

Her shield was waterproof which meant that they weren’t in danger of drowning, but Stark couldn’t seem to get his suit together so they _did_ have the threat of being stuck underneath the waves and rubble.

They couldn’t do much talking as they got jostled by the current and falling debris, so Lily could only hope that Stark was pulling through on _his_ end and would be able to get them out of there soon. She didn’t like the thought of water pressure cracking the protective dome they were currently in as much as she convinced herself it wouldn’t happen.


	9. You're the Only Ten-I-See

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Backup finally pulls through.

**Tony, Rose Hills Tennessee**

“Sir. Sir!”

Jarvis’ voice jolted him to consciousness as the alarm rang in his suit, “alright, kill the alarm. I got it.”

“That's the emergency alert triggered by the power dropping below five percent.”

The not-so-graceful crash that followed landed them in the middle of a forest in a snowstorm. It was too dark to see much detail but as far as he could guess, they were in the middle of nowhere. He wrenched off his helmet to breathe more easily as he said “it's snowing, right? Where are we, upstate?”

“We're five miles outside of Rose Hills, Tennessee.”

He startled, feeling panic starting to rise in his throat, “why?! Jarvis! Not my idea! What are we doing here? This is thousands of miles away, I gotta get Pepper, I gotta...”

“I prepared a flight plan. This was the location.”

“Who asked you? Open the suit." He needed air. 

“I...I think I may be malfunctioning, sir.”

“Open eject,” he demanded. The enclosure of the mask was making it hard to think straight. The suit finally opened and he sat up, shivering in the sudden cold, “that's brisk! Maybe I'll just cozy back up for a bit.” He'd rather panic in the warmth than freeze to death, anyway. 

“I actually think I need to sleep now, sir.”

The suit died. _Dammit._

 _“_ Jarvis. Jarvis? Don't leave me, buddy.”

There was no response. Tony felt he was pretty sure he was missing something but his suit was dead, Pepper was on his mind, and he had a jackass to try and find. _Stay calm, Stark._

It was only on the long walk to the closest town did it finally hit him.

“ _Shit,”_ he swore, “where’s the Doc?”

Of course, there was no response from Jarvis.

_Okay, Stark, prioritize. Stay calm. It's okay. She took a hit from Thor's hammer and walked away fine. A little fall wouldn't hurt her._

_Get to the town. Find some sort of extra layers._

_Stay calm._

_Call Pepper. Get suit repaired._

_Stay calm._

_Find the Doc if time allows. Get the bastard._

\--

**Lily, 861.5 miles West; 14 hours earlier**

When she came to, the first thing she realized was that it was night. Blinking, she sat up.

_Where the hell am I?_

It was hard to tell. She was close to a road, that much was certain. The ground sloped gently upward to meet the raised concrete.

In the distance, there were pinpricks of light coming from what she assumed was a small town. Very small, in fact. Either that, or people where finally starting to care about light pollution.

Lily grunted as she stood. While she wasn’t- couldn’t be- physically hurt, she _was_ irritated. _Where the hell is Stark? It’s just like him to drop me off in the middle of nowhere when I try to save his ass._

Grumbling to herself, she made her way towards the light, which luckily wasn’t very far. While she walked, she made an assessment of her condition.

_Right then. No phone, that’s in the ocean. Earbuds too. Crap._

_No wallet, ocean._

_Location? Unknown._

_Time? Who knows? It’s only a construct of humanity._

_Physical wellbeing? Peak condition, as usual._

_Awakeness? Could be better, average since New York._

_Right, don’t think about that._

_Next steps?_

_Find out where the hell I am._

_Find a phone._

_Call Bruce._

_Find Stark._

_Kick his ass._

_Well, probably not._

_Maybe a little._

The town was a lot smaller then she thought it was.

The plains she’d been walking on and the outline of the buildings against the vast carpet of stars told her she was in the country. _Seems like the Midwest._

It was sparse, as far as she could tell. _Not unlike the lake, though, so that’s at least familiar._ There didn’t seem to be many buildings, and the few residential homes were one-story or completely run down.

She shivered. _Creepy_. _Definitely West, somewhere. At least less West than California and more West than New York._ Lily rolled her eyes. _Great, narrowed it down to twenty-five states I could be in._

There seemed to be about ten residential homes directly off of the main road with more scattered further away on smaller, dirt-covered roads. There was a run-down, boarded-up strip center at the far edge which she refused to walk past at night. _Idiot. There’s no such thing as ghosts._

Well, there _were_ aliens. Who was to say there weren’t ghosts?

She steered clear anyway.

There was a post office. There was a cemetery off of one of the dirt roads. She steered clear of that, too. There was a church as well of course. It was rather large for such a small town.

Lily paced the roads the entire night, unwilling to settle down and try to sleep and there was nothing else to do. _I wish there was a payphone_.

She snorted _and how would operate it? Your money is in the ocean._

**9 hours earlier**

The sun finally came up over the horizon.

There wasn’t much hustle and bustle in the town and the residents unfortunately seemed to think that today was their day off. Or, at least, that they could sleep in. As the sound of cars starting up began to sound more frequently, Lily realized most of them were heading to a cafe she’d missed on the out skirts of town that she hadn't come across during her midnight pacing. Relief washed through her and she followed them to the small diner.

Inside, while it could hardly be described as _noisy_ , was far louder than the mostly-quiet town.

There were two older men at the counter. A family with toddler and baby sat in a booth, and a middle-aged woman sat by herself at a four-seater table. A number of other guests sat around the restaurant similarly.

The style was reminiscent of the 1970s with blue-and-silver seating décor and glass display cases of overly-large servings of pie and other deserts. Lily’s stomach rumbled as a reminder that she hadn’t eaten since she and Stark had visited Happy in the hospital. _God, what was that, forty-eight hours ago?_ She wasn’t sure.

Pushing the thought out of her mind as she couldn’t pay for food, she replaced the two men who had finished paying for their meal at the cash register.

An older woman with graying hair smiled cordially at her, “hello, dear. Ordering or paying?”

Lily shifted uncomfortably, “um, can I ask some questions? Before I answer that one, I mean?”

“Of course,” the woman said, slightly puzzled.

“Right,” she leaned forward slightly to read her name tag, “Agnes, is it? Um, pretty mundane question, but what time is it?”

“Seven fifteen, dear.”

“Okay, slightly more odd question. Where am I?”

The woman’s brow furrowed, “are you lost?”

Lily nodded immediately, “yes, I think I took a wrong turn somewhere. My car’s clock is always off, but I can never remember by how much," the lie slid out easily, "I’m, um,” _quick, think, where would I be going?_ “I’m going to Tennessee.”

_Why did I say that?_

The woman’s- Agnes’- expression softened, “this is Shamrock, Texas. Do you have someone you need to call? Do you need to use a phone?”

Lily could have cried. Could have, but didn’t. “Yes, please. Use a phone. I mean, I need to use one.”

“Of course,” Agnes said. She picked up a black corded phone, the type that school offices usually had. She moved it out of the way of the cash register, “dial four-one first for out of area.”

She flashed a smile to the woman, “thank you so much!”

Lily dialed Bruce’s number, glad she’d memorized it. He’d most likely be awake, too.

_Come on, come on, come on- please, pick up-_

He picked up on the third ring. She hadn’t even expected him to, with the phone number being unknown.

_“Hello?”_

It was cautious but she’d never been so relieved to hear another person’s voice- _especially his._

“Bruce!” his name came out almost as a sob.

_“Lily? Where are you calling from?”_

“Um, Shamrock, Texas.”

_“Texas? What the hell? Aren’t you supposed-“_

“Yeah, yeah. Didn’t you get our message?”

_“What message? Who’s ‘our’?”_

“Me and Stark. Stark and I- whatever. Didn’t you see the news?”

_“I don’t- I don’t watch the news. It, um, makes me. Well, you know.”_

“Angry?” she supplied. At his silence, she sighed, “yeah, well. We started a fire.”

 _“And you need me to put it out?”_ he didn’t _sound_ mad, just slightly exasperated, _“wait a second, why would it be newsworthy?”_

“Um…”

_“Lily, what the hell is going on?”_

“It’s a long story, okay? Especially if you’re not watching the news. I just- I just need help. I have no idea where Stark is. I only found out where _I_ am a few minutes ago. I’m borrowing a phone. I’ve got no money. I need to get to Tennessee.”

_Why the heck did I say that again?_

_“Tennessee? Why?”_

“Long story.”

She could hear him sigh on the other end. “Haven’t you felt what I’m feeling? Wouldn’t you at-“

_“I was, um, working. Sorry. I just-“_

“It’s fine,” she said, cutting off another one of his excuses, not in the mood for it, “can you help me or not?”

 _“Of- of course I can,”_ papers rustled in the background and she could almost picture him rifling through his work, _“Texas, you said? I’ll see what I can do. Stay put, okay?”_

Lily snorted. _What else am I supposed to do?_ “Okay. Um, you can ask Jarvis for help. I’m sure he’d know.”

_“Right. Thanks. Um, stay safe?”_

Her expression softened, “will do. We might still need you.”

There was silence for a beat and she wondered if he'd hung up, but then he answered “I’ll _stay on the line.”_

\--

**5 hours earlier**

Lily paced the town for what felt like the thousandth time. She’d lost count during the night and now people were starting to look at her strangely. She ignored them, though. It wasn’t like there was much she could do anyway since Bruce had told her to stay put. There was a faint whirring sound above her head but she ignored it. _Probably just a plane._

Now that it was daylight, she allowed herself to walk the cemetery without fear. As an archaeologist, the old tombstones provided an interest for her after the town had become boring. She couldn’t read a lot of the inscriptions but some dated back to the 1800s.

The whirring noise grew louder and Lily jumped, spinning around. In front of her was an Iron Man suit.

Well, not an Iron _Man_ suit, but what looked like one made for a woman. It had the same build structure and color scheme pattern, but far slimmer, more agile. Instead of red-and-gold, it had the same hues as the suit Stark had showed her dubbed ‘Protector.’

She eyed it warily and the eye slits glowed a soft gold, “Doctor Maywell?”

Her breath caught, “ _Mr. J?”_

The AI sounded relieved, “oh, good. We weren’t sure if this would work.”

The front of the suit folded in on itself revealing the cavity where her body was supposed to go. She climbed in eagerly and the suit closed around her.

“ _Oh my god, this is so cool!”_ she couldn’t help but be overly-enthusiastic about the change in circumstances, “how’d you find me, Mr. J?”

“With my help, Doctor Banner was able to trace the phone you used to your coordinates. They were put into the suit’s tracker and I was able to direct a flight path to your location.”

“ _Awesome_ ,” she breathed, “okay, then. Can you find your other self that Stark was using?”

“Yes, I can track the locations of all of Mr. Stark’s suits. The one he is currently using is offline but I have saved the flight path to my database.”

“Cool, let’s follow that, then,” she decided, then paused for a moment, “why does Stark have a female Iron Man suit?”

If he could, Jarvis seemed to sound uncomfortable, “Mr. Stark has not given me permission to disclose his reasons.”

“Right,” Lily said, suspicious, “so, do I fly this thing or do you?”

“I can correct flight patterns and balance power loads. The main use of direction is determined by the driver.”

“Okay. So, uh, put on the blasters?”

The lift was immediate and Lily had some trouble keeping herself upright. She was able to quickly learn the basics of directional flight and was able to take off using the blasters to push her into the sky.

“So, flight path? Can you Google Map it, or something? Then I need to call Bruce. Is flying and talking against the law?”

An image appeared in her vision, a thin line of blue backlit against the tan-and-green map going to her final destination of close to Rose Hills, Tennessee.

“There is no rule about flying and talking, Doctor Maywell. Mr. Stark does this quite often,” if anything, Jarvis sounded amused.

“Right. Um, call Bruce?”

“Calling Doctor Banner, madam.”

 _“You got it!”_ he was very clearly relieved.

“Yes, how’d you know about the suit?”

_“Jarvis gave me the idea. I just had to put in your location.”_

“Well, it’s brilliant. I mean, you’re brilliant. I mean, thanks,” _way to go, you idiot._

“Uh, no problem,” he sounded embarrassed. She could almost picture the faint pink spreading over his face and a small smile formed on her face. _God, she missed him._ It was almost surprising how much so, even with him being an idiot about things.

“Well, I could let you know when I find Stark. I don’t know why he’s in Tennessee-“

“There is an event of two heat signatures is similar to the one from the Chinese Theater, Doctor Maywell," the AI cut in, "Mr. Stark was discussing this with you before, quote ‘you were in imminent danger’ end quote.”

The memory came back to her. _Oh._ She’d forgotten all about that.

_“Imminent danger? You still haven’t told me what’s going on, Lily.”_

“Um, right. Hold on a sec, Bruce. Mr. J, how long is this flight?”

“Twelve hours, doctor.”

“ _Shit._ Can we make this go faster? Shut down some of the lesser functions and provide more power to the blasters?”

“Yes, madam. Lesser functions shutting down, power rerouting to flight. Trip time shortened to four hours, fifty-six minutes.”

The suit sped up.

“ _Lily,_ ” Bruce sounded impatient.

“Okay, okay. So, um, do you know the terrorist called the Mandarin?”

**Current time**

Compared to Texas, Tennessee was blustery, cold, and snowing. _At least they’re getting a white Christmas_. She might not even be _getting_ a Christmas at this rate.

Lily figured exhaustion must’ve caught up to her because after filling Bruce in on the details (which might not have been the best idea, seeing how agitated he got at their apparent ‘stupidity’), they (she and Jarvis) seemed to arrive in Tennessee in no time.

Night had fallen again and there was a larger, more populated town in the distance, which she could only tell from the pinpricks of light shining through the snow. Flying in the suit for hours was definitely not as fun as she’d thought.

“Five minutes until landing, Doctor.”

“Thanks Mr. J,” she paused, then gave voice to the thought that had been circling around in her head since she’d woken again, “will Stark be… will he _want_ to see me?”

“I do believe he will, Doctor.”

“You’re just saying that, aren’t you? Because you’re loyal to Stark?”

“No, madam. Recent data from the public servers claim that Mr. Stark is dead. Sir will most likely receive this news shortly, or already has. My awareness of his other suit is currently offline. These signs indicate that when you arrive, it will be a relief for him to know that he is not alone although he most likely will not show this.”

“Oh,” she went quiet, thinking about what the AI said.

The suit touched down outside of a nondescript shed which had a house attached several feet away. She could see two pairs of footprints that were already partially covered leading to the door. _Either Stark has come and gone, or someone’s with him._ A deeper, solid track was next to the slightly bigger footprints. _His suit?_

Gearing up the blasters in case there _was_ some sort of fight (although her senses did not indicate any), she forcefully shoved the door open.

Light spilled out onto the snow as she stood in the doorway, taking in the scene. Stark’s dead suit sat human-like on an old, ratty couch. A kid was next to it, half-raised in a standing position and wide-eyed. Stark himself sat at the workbench, which was covered in tools, a pair of tweezers in hand. At her arrival, his head shot up from what he was focusing on to also look at her.

Raising the silver face of the helmet to reveal her own, Lily smirked slightly at Stark’s startled expression, “cheating on me with a kid, are you, Stark?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know an OC getting an "Iron Man" suit is edging into Mary Sue territory but it's kind of for plot purposes so I guess that makes it okay? Besides, it's an AU so these things can happen.


	10. Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Except the fire comes from people. And there’s no chestnuts.

Stark remained unaffected and got up from the table, “wouldn’t you like to know?”

She huffed as he approached, “very mature. It’s not like I flew here from where you ditched me or anything.”

He raised both arms which were widened slightly as if to hug her before they abruptly dropped and he turned away, “yeah, sorry about that. Performance issues,” he turned slightly, tapping his fingers against one of the wooden beams, “where’d you land, anyway?”

“Texas. Much warmer than here. Who’s the kid?”

“Tagalong. Won’t stop bugging me.”

“I’m Harley,” the kid- Harley offered.

After he finished his paced circle, Stark turned back to her, “how’d you find me?”

Lily shrugged, “suit saved the premade flight route.”

He eyed her suspiciously, “right. And how’d you get the suit?”

“Bruce. Something about tracing the public phone and Jarvis inputting data.”

“Did he get our message?”

“He doesn’t watch the news. Said it made him angry.”

Stark snorted, “figures. Is he on board now? I assume you ratted us out?”

Lily felt anger flare up for a second before she took a breath. Now wasn’t the time. “I told him, yes. What if we actually need him?”

“Fair point, I suppose.”

There was something terribly disjointed about the whole conversation as if Stark was trying very hard not to show his surprise- or any other emotion- at her arrival.

She shifted, “Mr. J? Can I get out of this thing?”

“Of course, madam.”

The suit front opened and she stepped out.

“ _Oh, cool!_ ”

She glanced at the kid, “what, you like the suit?”

“I didn’t know Iron Man had an Iron Lady.”

“He doesn’t,” Stark cut in, “that was supposed to be private.”

“You want to touch the suit, kid?”

As Harley eagerly approached her, Stark snapped his fingers, “I wouldn’t. He likes to break them.”

“I _said_ I was sorry.”

The man returned to the bench, “but were you?”

Harley turned to protest but Lily placed a hand on his shoulder, “ignore him, kid. He’s an ass.”

“Watch your language, Doc. There’s children present.”

“I’m not a child!”

“Yeah, you are,” Lily said.

Harley gave her an irritated look which was soon forgotten as he admired the suit.

“There was a voice that came from here, wasn’t there?”

“Yes, Jarvis. I call him Mr. J. He’s an AI.”

“Give him all my secrets, why don’t you?”

Lily rolled her eyes, “hey, Mr. J, can you turn on a radio or something? This silence is depressing.”

“Of course, Doctor Maywell.”

The news turned on, projected from inside the helmet. Harley turned to look at her, “you’re a doctor? You don’t have a needle on you, d’you?”

Lily grinned, “no, I’m not _that_ kind of doctor. I have a PhD in Archaeology. Old stuff. Stark’s probably older, though.”

The kid- Harley- at least appreciated her humor. They fell quiet as the radio voices cut through the shed until she gave a sigh and said, “Mr. J, when I said that this was depressing, I didn’t mean to make it _worse_.”

“Apologies, Doctor Maywell,” the AI shifted channels, playing the first few lines of each.

* * *

About half an hour later- although time was hard to tell with no clock- Stark was working on some sort of project and had the kid hovering over his shoulder, watching him avidly. Lily sat on the ratty couch with her feet propped up against the shell of the Iron Man suit and her back against the arm of the sofa, her head was tilted back as she listened to Jarvis’ music with her eyes closed.Then, the first part of a familiar song came on. 

_I been cheated by you since you know when, so I made up my mind, it must come to an end, look at me now, will I ever learn?_

Lily’s eyes popped open and a slow smile spread over her lips. Far-off, half-forgotten memories of long summer days listening to her mother’s records in her room rose in her mind, of a simpler time when it had been just her and Lydia, alone together, singing their hearts out to all of the ‘70s hits her mother had saved.

She stood from the couch as the song continued, humming slightly and getting a feel for the tune again until, suddenly, she belted out with the chorus, the little shed in the middle of nowhere completely forgotten " _Mamma mia! Here I go again, My my, how can I resist you? Mamma mia, does it show again, my my, just how much I've missed you?"_

Lily had never been one for formal dance moves and the summer singing sessions had mostly consisted of the two of them jumping on her bed as they sang, so she swayed around the cluttered space of her own accord. It had been a long time since she’d heard the song and it felt good to lose herself- at least for the moment- in less complicated times.

About halfway through, she opened her eyes to see the dark-haired boy staring at her with wide eyes. With a grin, the blonde reached out a hand towards him and broke off from singing the lyrics, “dance with me, kid.”

She suspected he didn’t have very many fond childhood memories from the looks of it. His face morphed into one of clear horror, causing her to let out a surprisingly bubbly laugh at the expression. Nodding in acceptance, she withdrew her hand, “subtle,” she said in agreement, “take it back now,” before she fell back in with the third chorus.

As she savored the last verse she missed the curious, brown eyes that had become momentarily distracted from the task at hand to watch her with bemused interest.

* * *

Not much later, the three of them were walking around the town in the snow. Lily’s previous jubilation had turned into embarrassment as she’d come back to her senses which had turned eventually into quiet reflection. She was glad neither of them had mentioned anything. 

“The sandwich was fair, the spring was a little rusty, the rest of the materials, I'll make do. By the way, when you said your sister had a watch, I was kinda hoping for something a little more than that.”

“She's six! Anyway, it's limited edition. When can we talk about New York?”

Lily rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. It figured that the kid wanted to know about the uncomfortable stuff.

At least she and Stark seemed to be on the same page, “maybe never, relax about it.”

“What about The Avengers, can you talk about them?”

She perked up at this, “yeah, of course-“

Stark cut across her, “I don't know, later. We’re here on business,” he pushed the kid more towards Lily, “hey kid, give me a little space.”

She gave him an affronted look, “that doesn’t mean _I_ want him!”

“You’re a teacher, aren’t you? Don’t you love kids or something?”

She huffed, “ _older_ kids. College age.”

They stopped at the end of the road. On the wall, dark outlines of people were visible against the concrete. Lily shivered. _That’s not creepy at all._

“What's the official story here? What happened?”

“I guess this guy named Chad Davis, used to live roundabouts, won a bunch of medals in the army. One day, folks said he went crazy and made, you know, a bomb. Then he blew himself up right here,” the kid pointed to the spot.

“Six people died, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Including our guy, what’s-his-name?”

“Chad Davis?” Stark supplied for her.

“Yeah.”

Lily took a seat next to the kid, Stark soon following on the other side, “that doesn't make sense. Think about it. Six dead, only five shadows.”

“Yeah, people said these shadows are like the mark of souls gone to Heaven. Except the bomb guy, he went to Hell on account of he didn't get a shadow. That's why there's only five.”

“Do you buy that?”

“That's what everyone says. You know what this crater reminds me of?”

“No idea. I'm not...I don't care.”

“That giant wormhole, in um...in New York. Does it remind you?”

Lily sighed, pulling her knees up to her chest, tuning them out. She didn’t want to think about New York. She was still tired and now she was also cold.

She jolted as Stark suddenly rose to his feet and raced away, _what the hell?_ She stood up to follow them, quickly catch up to the pair as Stark stopped running just before the road.

“Wait, wait. What the hell was that?”

Stark buried his face in his hands as Lily turned on the kid, “you freaked him out, didn’t you?”

The kid’s eyes widened slightly, “you know about this?”

She ignored him in favor of hovering over Stark. If they’d had a _normal_ relationship she wouldn’t hesitate to put her hand on his shoulder, to touch him somehow and ground him. As it was, she was desperately trying to keep their emotional barrier intact so the palm of her hand hovered a few inches above his coat. 

Stark seemed to be able to recover without needing her, though, and threw some of the piled snow at the kid, “your fault, you spazzed me out. Where were we? The guy who died...relatives? Mom? Mrs. Davis, where is she?”

“Where she always is.”

“See, now you're being helpful.”

* * *

The two of them approached the diner, the kid somewhere behind. Stark turned to her, “I want you to sit this one out.”

Lily gave him a disbelieving look, “seriously?”

“Wait outside. Watch the kid or something,” he pointed to her, “no arguing.”

She crossed her arms and stuck out her bottom lip, pouting childishly. Something flashed across Stark’s face for a moment before he turned, “yeah, that’s not a good look for you. Didn’t your mother ever tell you your face would freeze like that?”

“Only when I sassed her.”

“Yeah, I’m sure that happened often.”

He disappeared inside, leaving her to wait. After she brushed some snow off the bench under the window, she sat down.

Not even ten minutes later, the back of her neck prickled.

_Danger. Again._

But where? She looked around the mostly deserted street. No one was really out at this time, but it wasn’t long before the screaming started- _inside_. Lily twisted around to look through the frosted window. She couldn’t see much thanks to the ice, but there was quite clearly commotion inside. _And Stark wanted me to sit this one out._ She snorted as the man came running outside.

“You still want me to sit this one out?”

He grunted, “shut up.”

He turned back to the woman chasing him, “hey, hot wings, you wanna party? You and me, let's go.”

She crossed her legs casually and watched as Stark burst through another window on the opposite side of the street. If she hadn't fought aliens not six months ago and she hadn't seen one of her soulmates turn into a great, big- dare she say _hulking_ \- alter-ego, she might've been more than a little awed at their new opponents but as it was, she was only mildly irritated. If Stark wanted her help, he’d ask. If he needed her help, she’d jump in. Right now, though, he was fine.

Lily’s skin prickled again seconds before an explosion shook the street, fire pouring out of the windows of the shop. She jerked upright into a standing position and without another thought raced headlong into the back alley. She’d have known if Stark was caught in the mainstream of the blast so she didn’t waste time searching the shop. Since he hadn’t come out the front, she assumed there was a back exit.

She turned out to be right. Her attention was immediately caught by the man who appeared to be unharmed, but she asked anyway, “you okay?”

He startled, turning as if to fight and she put her hands up, “hey, hey. It’s just me.”

Stark seemed to recognize her then and allowed himself to slump slightly, “yeah, yeah. Fine. I’m fine.”

 _That was completely believable._ She didn’t get a chance to say anything though as the creaking of metal caught their attention. Another one of the fire-people was standing at the base of the water tank and slowly melting the support. 

Lily glanced at Stark who sighed and gestured towards the man, “I’m guessing you want to take this one?”

“Only makes sense,” she answered, shrugging. She raised her hands and projected a blue shield between the man and the metal, the thin blue glow standing out against the orange of his skin. It grew darker as she added layer after layer, protecting the metal from over heating and crashing down on them.

If looks could kill, Lily would be a pile of ash. Fire-guy clearly did _not_ like his plans being messed with. He only vanished for a few moments before reappearing, this time with someone struggling in his grasp. Apparently, plan B was taking the kid.

“Help me! Help me!” the guy mocked, “hey kid, what would you like for Christmas?”

“Mr. Stark, I am so sorry!”

The guy didn’t like that either, “oh. No, no. I think he was trying to say, ‘I want my goddamn file.’”

“It's not your fault, kid. Remember what I told you about bullies.”

Lily blocked them out. She was safe from being incinerated, anyway, should the guy start targeting other people. She didn’t want the guy to get the bright idea to go back to his water tank so she concentrated on maintaining the blue protection. There was a bright flash out the corner of her eye but even then she didn’t look.

A hand settled on her shoulder, causing her to jump, “it’s okay, Doc. Take a breather.”

Risking a glance away, fire-guy was lying on the pavement of the alleyway, “what about him?”

Stark shrugged, “blasted a hole right through him. Should have a problem getting up.”

Deciding that yes, everything _was_ safe, she let her shield disappear and slumped for a second, tired from the exertion. The ‘emotional barrier’ slipped from her thoughts for the moment and Stark caught her, supporting her in a surprisingly gentle grip, “you good, Blondie?”

Lily forced herself to stand, “yeah, yeah. Fine. I’m fine.”


	11. Plans A Through G

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s a good thing there’s twenty-six letters in the alphabet.

Lily scuffed her foot along the dirt as she waited for Stark to come out of the van. He’d pretty much ditched her again saying that it was too small for more than one person (he was clearly wrong about that as the _owner_ of the van had come out after Stark had been in there for some time.) She figured he just didn’t want to be in such a tight space with her.

 _Stupid van. Stupid Christmas pageant. Stupid, stupid, stupid,_ she thought bitterly, crossing her arms against her chest to try and fight off the equally-bitter air.

After some amount of time, Stark reappeared, “we got him, let’s go.”

A part of her wanted to argue. A part of her wanted to stay behind, let him do this on his own. He clearly _didn’t_ need her and he barely wanted her around. She was pretty much useless. _Again._

 _I could be having a nice Christmas somewhere._ But would she? Knowing what Stark was doing? So all there was to do was huff and follow him, hating the feeling of ‘lost-puppiness.’

* * *

“Harley, tell me what's happening. Give me a full report.”

 _She really needed to stop Stark from driving them everywhere. First reading the files on the road, then talking and driving. It was only a matter of time before_ something _happened although she supposed that she’d finally be useful, then._

_“Yeah, I'm still eating that candy. Do you want me to keep eating it?”_

“How much have you had?”

_“Two or three bowls.”_

“Can you still see straight?”

_“Sort of.”_

“That means you're fine. Give me Jarvis. Jarvis, how are we?”

“It's totally fine, sir. I seem to do quite well for a stretch, and then at the end of the sentence I say the wrong cranberry,” Lily snorted as the suit continued, “and, sir, you were right. Once I factored in available AIM downlink facilities I was able to pinpoint the Mandarin's broadcast signal.”

“What are we talking? Far East, Europe, North Africa, Iran, Pakistan, Syria? Where is it?”

“Actually, sir, it's in Miami.”

“Okay, kid, I'm gonna have to walk you through rebooting Jarvis's speech drive, but not right now. Harley, where is he really? Just look on the screen and tell me where it is.”

_“Um, it does say Miami, Florida.”_

“Okay, first things first, I need the armor. Where are we at with it?”

_“Uh, it's not charging.”_

Something finally _did_ happen with Stark driving and he pulled off the road abruptly, causing Lily’s hand to jump to her chest, “ _Jesus!”_

Stark’s breathing increased as Jarvis continued, “actually, sir, it is charging, but the power source is questionable. It may not succeed in revitalizing the Mark 42.”

“What's questionable about electricity? All right? It's my suit, and I can't... I'm not gonna... I don't wanna... Oh, God, not again.”

 _Panic attack_ , she thought, recognizing the signs from Happy’s injury.

 _“Tony?”_ the kid’s voice seemed out of place, now, _“are you having another attack? I didn't even mention New York._ ”

Lily bristled as Stark scrambled out of the car, “hey, kid, it’s the Doc. Right now I need you to shut up.”

She unbuckled her seat belt and followed Stark out of the car, the kid going quiet on the other side. The man had fallen to his knees by the side of the car, so she knelt gently in front of him.

She sighed, preparing herself to lose the emotional barrier- _again_ , “Tony.”

The sound of his name caused his head to snap up, looking at her with wide, slightly unfocused eyes.

“Okay, Tony, I need you to listen to me,” it was easier to stay calm this time, knowing what was happening, “we need you here, okay?” as much as she wanted to, Lily ignored the urge to place her hands on his shoulders, “ _I_ need you. Can you give me a nod if you’re hearing my voice?”

“I’m going to need you to repeat after me, okay Tony? It’s alright if it takes a moment, so just do your best, okay?”

There was another nod, so she continued, “your name is Tony Stark.”

“….Tony Stark,” he repeated.

“We’re in Rose Hills, Tennessee.”

“Rose Hills, Tennessee.”

“It’s, um, night?”

“It’s night.”

“We can fix your suit,” this, she said firmly.

“We- we can fix my suit,” Tony repeated, agreeing.

He seemed to steady himself then, his eyes focusing on her. There was just one more thing she needed him to know, "you’re not alone.”

He took a deep breath, “okay. Okay,” he stood, speaking to the boy on the other side of the line, “thanks, kid.”

After Harley hung up, they got back into the car. It was quiet for awhile as they drove to some unknown destination before Stark finally broke the silence, “how do you know how to do that?”

Startled, Lily glanced at him, “do what?”

He waved a hand in the air, “bring me back. The calm down thing.”

She shrugged, “I have students who take therapy. Only one of them has ever actually done that in class when we were studying ancient Rome. I’m not sure what it triggered but after she told me some ways to help settle the panic so I figured it could be tailored to who needs it. Other students have it too, but it only actually happened once.”

The silence fell again but she could sense it was far more comfortable, almost thoughtful. Sometime later, they arrived at Walmart. Stark stopped her in front of the doors.

“Are you serious? There’s not even a fight going on.”

He gave her an exasperated look, “look, it’s nothing against you, Blondie. At least, it’s not every time,” his expression turned knowing, “don’t you have a call to make?”

He disappeared into the store as Lily rolled her eyes, using Stark’s borrowed phone to dial the familiar number.

_“I still haven’t been watching the news.”_

She grinned, “that’s why I’m calling, you idiot.”

_“Is that any way to talk to your back up?”_

“Sorry, sorry. What I meant to say was, how quickly can you get to Miami, Florida?”

There was a pause, _“is there another option besides flying?”_

“Um, kind of on a tight schedule. I’m sure Stark won’t mind if you use one of his planes or something. Ask Mr. J. It should be better than New York, anyway.”

* * *

The last thing Bruce Banner ever wanted to do was get on another plane so soon after the last disaster. He'd known it was a bad idea then and it wasn't any better now. 

Well, maybe it was a _little_ better. Being inside the actual plane was still just as terrible but at least this time, it was because of his own free will and the two people he had the hardest time saying _no_ to had asked for his help. 

_His_ help. 

It was somewhat of a marvel to have people counting on him like this again even if he was filled with apprehension and the fear of disappointing them or making things worse as he had a habit of doing. 

Still, they hadn't asked for just _anyone's_ help. They'd wanted _his._

So, he went. 

* * *

Stark drove again, unfortunately.

After the one-night stay at some motel, they arrived in Miami in fourteen hours which was pretty good, all things considered. Their rendezvous point was at a nondescript diner. They waited in the car until another one pulled in, followed by a very familiar, dark-haired man getting out.

Almost immediately, Lily scrambled out of the car to greet him, only barely stopping herself from hugging him in time. A month and a half was a long time to go without seeing your “friend” soulmate, so she ended up giving him an awkward handshake instead.

As Stark joined them, Bruce gave them a bemused look, “and we’re not asking the other Avengers to help because why?”

Stark shrugged, “not an end-of-the-world sort of thing. It’s below their paygrade” he patted the other man on the shoulder, “good to see you, buddy.”

“Right. Is this a ‘we-need-the-Other-Guy’ sort of thing, then?” he sounded apprehensive.

“We’ll see,” Lily supplied, giving him an apologetic look.

“You’re caught up to speed, right? She caught you up to speed?”

Bruce gave a nod, “do you even have a plan?”

Stark gave him an offended look, “ _do_ we have a plan? Of course we do. We’ve got plans A through G.”

Lily rolled her eyes, “we’ve barely got twelve percent of a plan.”

* * *

Breaking in was the easy part as the saying went.

“My name is Trevor. Trevor Slattery.”

Stark’s gun arm didn’t move, “what are you? What are you, a decoy? You're a double, right?”

“What, you mean like an understudy? No, absolutely not. Don't hurt the face! I'm an actor.”

She let Stark do the talking. She’d never been good with intimidation, anyway. She supposed that went with the “I’m-a-teacher” air she supposedly had. Besides, she was supposed to protect people, not hurt them- even if they were a bunch of a-holes. 

Lily picked up one of the fortune cookies resting in the bowl and fiddled with it, waiting for the important information to come up. She broke it in half. Tossing the cookie pieces back (she certainly didn’t trust that they hadn’t been tampered with), she read the slip of paper. _A golden egg of opportunity falls into your lap this month._

She snorted and crumpled the paper, tossing it away in favor of picking up another one.

“Did you just nod off?” Stark looked up from his interrogation for a moment, “hey. I hope you’re not eating those.”

Lily rolled her eyes, “I’m not an idiot,” then, in a dramatic voice, she read, “all the troubles you have will pass quickly,” _wouldn’t that be nice?_

Stark turned back to the not-Mandarin and kicked him awake, continuing his interrogation.

She broke open a few more before the next one that caught her attention, _don’t panic._

_Well, that’s not ominous._


	12. Plans H Through Z

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The back half of the alphabet proved to be more useful.

Once the fire-guy from earlier had knocked Stark out, Lily went easily for the most part. She felt a faint prickle of worry about the man’s new state and the fact that she hadn’t been able to sense it before it happened but she couldn’t linger on that. She had to stay alert for any _more_ danger as to not make the same mistake again.

After all, ‘back-up’ was right around the corner to help them. They’d told Bruce to give them an hour and if they weren’t out by then, something had happened and he would definitely be needed. Lily thought they should have a larger time frame than that but Stark had been adamant about wrapping up quickly. Now, they were both zip-tied to wire-frame beds and she was irritated.

“It's just like old times, huh?”

_She was really, really starting to dislike this woman._

“Oh, yeah. With zip ties. It's a ball.”

“It wasn't my idea.”

Lily held back a snort, _it probably was._

“Okay. So you took Killian's card.”

“I took his money.”

“And here you are 13 years later, in a dungeon.”

“No.”

_Really?_

“Yeah.”

“No, you're in a dungeon. I'm free to go.”

She didn’t care about their history. In fact, she really, really preferred not to think about it. It was bad enough that Stark _had_ a girlfriend- who easily showed how far out of the league Lily was- but to consider Stark’s _past_ on top of that? It killed her to think about how many _other_ women there were.

A blond-haired man entered, finally providing something easier to think about, “you know what my old man used to say to me? One of his favorite of many sayings... ‘the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.’"

“You're not still pissed off about the Switzerland thing, are you?” Stark asked.

“How can I be pissed at you, Tony? I'm here to thank you. You gave me the greatest gift that anybody's ever given me. Desperation. If you think back to Switzerland, you said you'd meet me on the rooftop, right? Well, for the first 20 minutes, I actually thought you'd show up. And the next hour... I considered taking that one-step shortcut to the lobby. If you know what I mean.”

 _Quite the sob-story, isn’t it? I wonder if it changes every time he tells it._ She knew it wasn’t really a joking matter but as Bruce once said about another, similar maniac- you could smell the crazy on him. She shifted uncomfortably against the metal bedframe as he gave what she determined to be his ‘villain speech.’ Honestly, TV villains were _much_ more creative. 

“What's next for you in your world?”

“Well, I wanted to repay you the selfsame gift that you so graciously imparted to me.”

Killian rolled three little, metal balls forward. She briefly wondered if they were some sort of high-tech bombs but her skin didn’t tingle like it usually did so she dismissed the thought. Instead, a holograph appeared in front of them and she sucked in a breath.

_Pepper._

Lily was relived that she didn’t feel _glad_ that the woman was in pain. As much as Lily was jealous of Pepper (which was very hard to admit to herself), it wasn’t the sort of jealousy that killed.

Hansen cut in, “let him go.”

“Hold on, hold on. Maya...”

The dark-haired woman was holding something up to her neck threateningly, “I said, let him go.”

Lily turned her head away from the scene in front of her towards the man next to her as best she could. As far as she could tell, his expression had remained nearly the same, his mouth dropping open slightly the only sign of any distress that she could see from her angle. Perhaps, if she had actually _seen_ his face, she’d have seen the glassy horror that had appeared in his eyes as well.

“What are you doing?”

“1200 CCs. A dose half of this size, I'm dead.”

“It's times like this my temper is tested somewhat. Maya, give me the injector.”

“If I die, Killian, what happens to your soldiers? What happens to your product?”

“We're not doing this, okay?”

“What happens to you? What happens if you go too hot?”

Killian barely hesitated as he pulled the trigger, embedding a bullet right in the woman’s stomach, “the good news is, a high-level position has just been vacated.”

Lily finally put her two cents in, “you’re crazy.”

He swung the gun towards her, “who asked you? I'm a visionary.”

Lily saw his finger move back to the trigger and forced her face to stay in a smooth mask, “you want to shoot me, don’t you? What’s stopping you? There’s no need for an extra mouth as they say. I mean nothing to you, so shoot me, bitch.”

There was a gun shot.

The bed next to her rattled and a shout of _“no!”_ came from the man next to her.

Lily resisted the urge to laugh in Killian’s face.

The bullet hit her square in the chest but instead of embedding itself, it bounced to the ground harmlessly with a little tinkle. Killian had already turned away, unconcerned and convinced he’d killed her.

He gave his parting words, “I do own a maniac. And he takes the stage tonight.”

\--

 _“What the_ hell _were you thinking?”_

There was a rawness to Stark’s voice that she hadn’t heard before which made her feel slightly guilty.

“Uh, I wasn’t?”

She was pretty sure that if they _weren’t_ zip-tied to a bed, he’d run his hand over his face in exasperation, “you could have-“

“I could have _nothing_ , Stark,” she said easily, “I’m invulnerable, remember? I’m not even a little bit sore.”

There was a pause where she glanced over to see him looking between the two guards before their eyes met- as best they could, anyway, “we’re having this conversation later.”

They fell silent until the kid’s sister’s watch started beeping, prompting one of the guys to pick it up.

“Careful, there. It's a limited edition. Hey, uh, Ponytail Express. What's the mileage count between Tennessee and Miami?”

“832 miles.”

“Very nice.”

“I'm good like that. Can you, uh, stop that?”

“Break it, you bought it.”

Lily tried to mentally calculate how much time had passed since they’d left Bruce on the outside of the building. _Ten minutes to get in, about. Fifteen for questioning? Yeah, fifteen. That’s twenty-five. Stark unconscious for… another ten? Thirty-five. Review of history lesson? Five minutes? Forty in total. Maniac speech? Those take a while, so probably another fifteen. Fifty-five. Another five minutes and hopefully Bruce will pull through._ She knew he would, though.

“We’ve got another five minutes, Stark,” she cut in.

“No, no we don’t. It’s coming in three, four...”

“Shut up.”

“Five, four, three, two, one!” the left side of the Iron Man suit attached to his arm, the force spinning the wire bedframe around slightly. She wondered if Bruce had seen and was deciding if they needed help.

Stark wasted no time in blasting the guy who’d broken the watch, “told you. Where's the rest?”

Stark immediately freed himself and engaged with the second man and in the distance she could have sworn she’d heard a roar. The two men started off evenly matched as both tried to gain the upper hand. She could hear him grunt _“where’s the rest?”_ as both of his hands became occupied in trying to defend himself. Since she was still tied to the bed, she wasn’t much help.

The wall of the dungeon collapsed allowing dusty light to fill the room, only to be blocked by a large… well, hulking figure who let out another roar.

“Ah! Better late than never.”

Lily snorted, “he’s right on time,” she directed her attention towards the Other Guy, “hey, buddy, could I get some help!”

That request was lost in the sudden onslaught of gunfire. Apparently, Killian’s men had heard the sound of fighting and had come to help their fellow employees as they appeared in the second floor entrance. With only two limbs of his suit working, Stark made a funny circle in the air as he tried to sort himself out, the one Repulsor he had shooting randomly towards the guards.

The Big Guy stayed exactly where he’d stopped after breaking through the wall, the only movement being his slightly heavy movement as he apparently waited for orders. As Stark landed on the ground again, he used a gun in his free hand as the makeshift part of the other side of his suit.

Deciding that her immediate release was far less important than the gunfire currently raining down on them, Lily raised her voice to catch the Hulk’s attention, “hey, Big Guy!”

At the sound of her voice, he turned towards her, something like surprised recognition flickering across his face. Before he could move towards her, though, she nodded to the men on the second level who were intermittently hiding and shooting, “can you take care of those guys?”

His head swung back around to the men- several of whom Stark had taken out already- and with a grunt of approval, bent his knees and jumped, the force of his landing shaking the building slightly. Lily couldn’t help but smirk as she imagined how Killian’s men must be feeling.

Even then, though, she felt guilty as she watched the Hulk make quick work of their opponents, knowing that no matter what, Bruce was going to feel terrible about it later.

Prickles raced along her spine and she tensed, twisting her head as far as it would go to see the last man appear from nowhere, Stark’s name escaping her mouth in warning before she could stop it. The dark-haired man turned to raise his gun at the other, who suddenly relaxed and put up his hands, “honestly, I hate working here. They’re so weird.”

She sighed with relief as Stark watched him escape.

\--

The three of them made it outside, or, well, burst outside as the Big Guy didn’t exactly fit through doors. Another suit was taking off as they left even as Stark’s own suit finally made it’s full reappearance.

The man’s voice was echo-y as he answered a call, “Rhodey, tell me that was you in the suit.”

Then, “Uh... Mmm. Kind of. Main house, as fast as you can. There's somebody I'd like you to meet."

After he hung up, Stark gestured towards the Hulk, “take him to the acting room. The one with the props. Get Banner back and find him some clothes.”

“What about you?” Lily demanded.

“Main house, with Rhodey. Can’t exactly take the Big Guy in there.”

Lily sighed and turned towards their third member, “come on, Big Guy. Let’s go.”

He gave her a slightly puzzled look and she couldn’t help but smile, “you did good, really helped us out. It’s time to go, now.”

 _He really wasn’t that scary. At least, not when he wasn’t angry_ , she couldn’t help but think. Even now, as she looked up into his mostly calm face, she could see hints of Bruce behind his eyes, a sort of awareness that let her know that her soulmate _was_ in there, somewhere. It almost made her feel even worse about earlier, if Bruce was actually aware of what he’d been doing. She wasn’t exactly sure how that worked.

Lily carefully held out her hand, palm side up. After hesitating a for a few minutes as if uncertain of what she wanted from him, the Hulk cautiously placed a single finger on top of her open hand and her fingers closed around it, the one digit large enough to keep her hand in a loose fist.

The sudden _woosh_ of someone taking off startled her, causing her to jump. _She hadn’t realized Stark had hung around for so long._ Shrugging off the confusion, she- as carefully as possible, which, in the end, was a wasted effort probably- led the Hulk by the finger (with much cajoling as well) back to the room she and Stark had first entered an hour ago.

Lily turned to face the Big Guy and gently let go of his finger in favor of tilting her open palm into the familiar vertical position it had once taken in a SHIELD Helicarrier, “recognize this, Big Guy?”

He studied her again and she was surprised at the concentration he seemed to be giving the gesture. Then, something shifted in his expression and in a rumbling grunt, he exclaimed, “Pretty girl!”

The blonde-haired woman felt her face warm slightly at the epithet, feeling surprisingly pleased that he’d remembered her, “yep, you remember me, right?”

He gave a single nod, his eyes flicking uncertainly towards her hand. She sighed, knowing that this probably wasn’t going to be easy, “you don’t want to go back, do you, Big Guy?”

The shake of his head confirmed her suspicions and she wondered what she was going to do now. They really _did_ need Bruce back, after all. Biting her lip in thought, she considered her next words very carefully, “you really did help us back there so thank you for that,” she started, “we’ll definitely need your help again, too,” she made sure not to mention _when_ , “but right now, we- uh, _I_ need to talk to Br- Banner, okay?” Lily watched his face closely, knowing how he usually bristled at the mention of the scientist.

When he didn’t show any outward aggression, she continued more softly, “you’re just as important as he is, you know. I know you don’t like each other much- _that_ was the understatement of the year- and I’m not really sure where I’m going with this, but I just…” she paused and bit her lip again, lifting her head to do her best to look him in the eyes, “is there any way we can make the transition easier, I guess?”

There was another shift in his face. Lily was surprised at how hard it was to tell one of the Hulk’s expressions from another but she was pretty sure his features had softened, even if it was hard to tell. Then, to her surprise, he placed one of his large hands against her palm as they’d done six months ago. This time, though, there was no hot-headed god to get in the way of their now-established ritual and Lily watched in slight awe as the giant being began to _shrink_ right before her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still think this chapter is kind of cringe-y but I definitely like it better than what it was originally...


	13. All's Well That Ends Well

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the end, everything might be worth it.

“I’m sorry,” were the first words out of her mouth once Bruce had finished his transformation.

He winced, using a nearby table to help prop himself up, “was it that bad?”

“Can you see?” she asked softly, feeling the guilt creep back up, especially as she took in how exhausted he looked.

Bruce shook his head, “not usually. I just… know after, I guess.”

Lily swallowed against the lump forming her throat and shrugged out of her old jacket, thrusting it towards the dark-haired man as she turned to take in what clothing options that were given to them. The leaden feeling that was slowly filling her caused her to be unable to fully enjoy the sight before her as she’d done after they’d woken up in the rubble before New York.

Silence settled between them as they turned to look for spare clothes, slightly more strained than their usual comfort around each other. Lily knew it was the guilt of having to rely on Bruce’s _other_ form but how _could_ she feel comfortable, knowing what it cost him?

As they finished gathering a makeshift outfit the phone in the room rang, causing both of them to jump. Bruce vanished from her sight- presumably to go change- as Lily cautiously picked up, “hello?"

“So you’re just gonna pick up an unknown, ringing phone like that?”

She relaxed. Stark, of course. She wasn’t even going to ask how he’d gotten this particular number.

“I figured it was you.”

“Right, right. Did you get things calmed down on the home front?”

Lily glanced back towards where the dark-haired man had disappeared, “yep. We’re all good here. What’s next?”

“Listen. We’re on our way to save Pepper. We also have to save the President. We’re doing the second one, Pepper’s on your turf.”

She winced. _Not the best plan. Couldn’t we have gotten the President?_ “are you going to tell me where she is?”

* * *

The docks were nearly dark with only the light from the boat illuminating them as Lily and Bruce stood beneath the giant hull.

“Are we sure about this?”

Lily glanced back at him, “no, of course not. That’s why it’s called a plan. It’s only once we’ve done it that we can be sure.”

She could see the discomfort on his face that mirrored her own feelings, “I know it’s hard, B,” she said softly, and then took a deep breath, ready to argue, “you should wait here.”

A faint look of annoyance passed over his face, “it was my choice, you know.”

“I know,” she agreed softly, “and we shouldn’t have asked something like that of you, knowing how much you hate it. I’m sorry.”

Bruce’s expression relaxed, “you don’t have to keep apologizing, Lil. That wasn’t on you, I’m the one who agreed to it knowing full well what would happen.” 

“I guess,” she wasn’t entirely convinced, “you’re still staying here,” she said firmly, “I don’t want to have to count on you like that unless I have to. Not,” she added hurriedly, “that I _don’t_ want-“

“I know,” he said, cutting her off, looking faintly amused.

She turned back to the side of the ship, “right then.”

Lily startled as warmth settled over her skin, near her wrist, and she turned back to the dark-haired man, her mouth slightly agape with surprise. Bruce gave her a soft smile, “good luck then, yeah?”

She could just barely manage a nod before slipping away along in the shadows of the wall. Luckily, there didn’t seem to be anyone around that could hear the sudden, rapid pounding of her heart. The feeling only increased when her foot hit something metal that caused it to go skittering across the deck, possibly alerting guards, but no one came. After that, she slipped inside.

The PA crackled to life as they entered the control room, _“all personnel, we have hostiles on east unit 12._ _I repeat, hostiles on east unit 12.”_

Pepper was in the middle, strapped to a horizontal stretcher. The two guards on the monitors looked up at Lily’s exclamation.

Immediately, one of them began shouting into a radio, _“Sir, sir, we’ve got eyes on the-_ “

He didn’t get to finish as Lily knocked the radio out of his hand and went back for a second punch, this time aiming for his face. She’d already punched a god, so what was the difference?

The answer was that mortal men went down a lot more easily.

The second guard escaped past her out onto the main deck. She’d worry about him later.

As she neared Pepper, she asked the restrained woman, “are you in danger of dying?”

It was a strange question, she knew, but Pepper was clearly hurt so it would waste time if she asked the usual ‘ _are you okay’_ as the answer was _no, of course not_. Dying, on the other hand, was not so obvious.

Pepper’s mouth quirked up in a wry smile, “no, Doctor.”

“Okay, we’ll get you out of here. St- Tony’s on his way,” she added the last bit, thinking that Pepper might be reassured that there was someone she’d _want_ to see on the other side.

After studying the straps, Lily managed to free her from the constraints thanks to the availability of sharp, metal objects laying about the room. Apparently, no one cared about safety protocol. Lily attempted to help her stand, but Pepper cringed away from her, “no, I’ll burn you.”

Lily sighed. Everyone forgot she was invincible.

“No, I can’t _get_ hurt-“ she broke off, her skin prickling again.

After making a split-second assessment that the two of them were close enough to each other, the familiar blue light surrounded them moments before the wall of heat crashed against the dome. The blast bounced them backwards against the falling metal structure. When the dust startled to settle, the room was completely caved in. If it hadn’t been for her protection they would’ve been buried under a pile of rubble. As it was, they were relatively unharmed.

Stark’s voice cut through the resulting silence, “see what happens when you hang out with my ex-girlfriends?”

Lily let her shield disappear as he approached, looking critically at Pepper, “you're such a jerk.” At least she sounded relieved.

“Yep. We'll talk about it over dinner. Come on.”

Her stomach turned with jealous nausea as she watched Stark reached out his hand to his girlfriend to lead her out of the room. She glanced away to avoid having to see their hands meet. The moment was short-lived, though, as the metal below them started to glow red-hot and a fiery hand appeared.

Both woman startled as the hand hit the iron suit, grasping for the glowing arc reactor, causing Stark to fall over when it reached its target. Killian himself was revealed as he stood from the hole he’d made. Looking between the three of them, he smirked as he asked Pepper, “is this guy bothering you?”

He scrambled over to where the suited man had fallen and the only thing stopping Lily from pulling him off was the reminder that Pepper was here, too, and was far more vulnerable than she was if something were to happen.

Killian placed his hand on the metal part of the suit and said, “don't get up. Ooh. Is it hot in there?” with _too_ much enthusiasm for her liking, “stuck? Do you feel a little stuck? Like a little turtle, cooking in his little turtle suit.”

Pepper tensed next to her and Lily raised her arms slightly, prepared to stop the woman from rushing into danger, but all she did was breath Stark’s name in a distressed sort of way that mirrored Lily’s own, internal emotions.

Almost gleefully, Killian continued, “she's watching. I think you should close your eyes. Close your eyes. Close your eyes. You don't want to see this.”

There was a sudden roar of pain as the fiery arm was suddenly cut off by Stark’s suit modifying itself into a knife, the appendage flying several feet away from its previous owner and burning through the metal floor upon contact. The change made Pepper’s feet suddenly give out from under her, the woman falling through the hole after the arm.

Lily’s heart dropped to her stomach as she lurched forward in an effort to grab on to her arm, her leg, anything, really, a loud cry of _“no!_ ” escaping her lips. While Pepper didn’t mean much to _her,_ she was important to Stark and made him happier than she, Lily, could ever make him. That was enough for her to try and go after the woman.

Her forward progress- which most likely would have sent her through to the same fate that awaited Pepper- was stopped when a part metal, part flesh hand from Stark’s broken suit collided harshly with her shoulder, causing her head to jerk back slightly to look at him.

His voice was slightly robotic as he said firmly, “not you. Get out of here,” then, to his suit, said, “Jarvis, get Protector over here and get her out."

As she opened her mouth to protest, he continued in the same sort of tone, “no arguing. I can only focus on one of you at a time,” then, he flew out of the rubble of the control room and out of sight.

 _One of you_? Stark’s words took a minute to sink in after the outrage and- she had to admit- hurt caused by his dismissal. _Why did he always push her away?_ She knew the answer to that, really, but then her mind turned back to what he’d said. _One of you._ Surely that was a slip of the tongue, right?

He cared about Pepper- some could say he loved her, depending on what they knew of the man. But did that mean he… the thought was almost too difficult to comprehend.

She didn’t even get much of a chance to think on it further as cold, hard metal pressed against her back and the arms of the suit locked around her waist, the jets on the feet propelling her upward, above the flames and destroyed ship to the safety of the shadowy dock.

Lily stumbled on the landing as the empty suit immediately turned around and took off again once she was safely deposited. Luckily, her fall was stopped by a pair of much gentler hands, hands that radiated a warmth she could feel even through her jacket and shirt. Blue eyes flicked up to meet concerned brown ones underneath a furrowed brow of concern, “what happened, are you okay?”

She couldn’t help but feel a rush of relief towards the man in front of her which was quickly replaced by hurt, “he kicked me out,” she said, her tone disbelieving.

“What?”

“He- To- Stark, he kicked me out,” her voice rose slightly and she twisted out of Bruce’s grip to turn back towards the burning ship, the sick feeling returning in a different way, “what if he needs help? What if-“

Her legs felt leaden as the urgency to return to the ship rose within her. Stark may _think_ he can handle everything on his own but- her mind flashed towards the past, a similar time to this, where he’d said a sort-of goodbye, thinking it would be the last time he’d ever see her.

She blinked, the orange flames of fire flickering and blurring her vision, blending into the darkness of the surrounding night and gaining a blue sort of tinge as the distant crackle of the fire seemed to turn into the static of the tiny, strange technology in her ear.

“ _Hey, Blondie. I’m sorry this wasn’t able to work out differently, but you know I don’t have a choice, right? You’ll be happy with Bruce, at least, happier than you would be with me- I promise.”_

Then, Lily jerked, her vision focusing on the man’s face in front of her. She could see his mouth was moving but no words reached her ears until, “breath, Lil,” was the first thing she registered. His voice was firm, more commanding than she’d ever heard before and she forced herself to take a breath. That helped, and she took another one.

It was then that she realized she’d been saying _“what if-“_ over and over again, unable to complete the thought as her mind had spazzed out. Guilt swept through her as she came back to her senses, remembering how she’d left the man she was apparently so worried about.

“I tried to help him,” she told Bruce, “I tried-“ her voice broke off and her face flushed slightly when she realized her eyes were _still_ blurry, but this time it wasn’t just from the panic the thought of New York had brought her, “I tr-“ her voice really did break off in a sob, then, and it was as if a dam had been opened- she couldn’t stop.

Lily wasn’t even sure _why_ she was crying. She supposed it was all of the pent-up emotion of the last few weeks, of the jealousy, hurt, frustration and deep-hidden anger that finally came to the surface. She wasn’t even really registering anything anymore, lost in the effort of trying to breathe normally through her upset.

It was only for a few minutes, though, as two arms wrapped around her middle and stayed there, allowing her to bury her face in the darkness of a shoulder. Bruce was stiff against her as if he was unsure if this was the right thing to do, but she didn’t have the energy to reassure him and clung to him desperately, partly afraid he’d pull away and disappear altogether, even as waves of reassurance and comfort- not _hers,_ but sent by him- washed through their bond.

As a solitary person- especially after the accident- Bruce wasn’t accustomed to any form of affection, really, but when he’d seen the blonde-haired woman, his soulmate- _no, Lily_ , he thought- break down into sudden tears, he’d known that he couldn’t leave her just to _cry_. So, despite the building pressure from the presence in his head that was a result of her panic from moments before, he tentatively placed his arms around her and held her stiffly against him as he’d seen people do countless times before.

If anything, he’d expected his heart rate to increase, for something to go drastically wrong as _proof_ of why he shouldn’t have physical contact, but there was _nothing_. Even the pressure in his head vanished, completely gone as if it had never been there in the first place. In fact- and he wasn’t usually one to believe in magic or fate, even in the universe he lived in-he couldn’t help but feel that it was _right_ , as if they were two pieces of a three-piece puzzle. Unexpected warmth for the woman he’d tried to hold at arm’s length filled him and, for once in his life, he had no desire to run away.

So he stayed.

* * *

She wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that on the dock as she desperately tried to reign in her emotions, but then the dark-haired man stiffened again, causing her to realize he’d _relaxed_ during their long moment of contact, but the thought was quickly lost on her as he murmured quietly, “look, Lil.”

Lily forced herself to turn, uncertain of what he meant at first until she noticed he was pointing upward. The blonde woman followed the direction of his finger and her eyes widened at the fireworks that appeared in the sky, almost as if in celebration.

To her utmost surprise, Bruce didn’t pull away to watch the display but only shifted slightly so that she could lean against him, the warmth of his chest pressed against her back, the weight of his arms around her as they both stared up into the darkness to watch the illumination of sparks in the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a little worried that Bruce turned out to be a bit OOC, but other than that I'm pretty proud of how this turned out! 
> 
> One more chapter to go! :)


	14. A Golden Egg of Opportunity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe not all fortune cookies are liars. Or it was just really good timing.

**New York, New York, One Week Later**

Despite having graduated college years earlier Lily still found herself buried deep in schoolwork, although this time it was her student’s- not hers (although she was getting a bit behind on her Physics assignments.) Even without her music (thanks to her earbuds still lying somewhere on the ocean floor), she managed to get lost in her work, enough so that when something heavy landed in her lap she startled badly.

Her head jerked up to see where the interruption came from and her eyes widened as she took in the two men in front of her.

Bruce was currently giving Stark an admonishing look, “I _told_ you not to throw it.”

Lily looked down to see what it was and puzzled over the apple, “something happened to this, didn’t it?” she eyed Stark suspiciously, “medical tampering? Scientifically enhanced? A mechanical decoy of an apple that can trigger an explosion?”

The man in question snorted, “no, no, and that’s technically not a bad idea, but no. Nothing’s happened.”

She didn’t trust his answer and turned towards Bruce, who also shook his head.

“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Doc.”

“Then why’d you give me this?”

Stark grinned, “because I’m a provider, baby.”

She tried not to feel anything at that term of endearment, “I should let Pepper know you’re calling other women pet names.”

The couch dipped on either side of her as both men sat down, “you don’t need to tell Pepper anything. It’s not hers to worry about anymore.”

Despite the initial feeling of excitement (that she would never admit to aloud), Lily aimed for sympathy and got somewhere close to it, “I’m sorry, Stark. Especially after everything-“

He shrugged, “it was mutual. I wanted to pursue other interests. She needed time to herself.”

She perked up at that, “other interests?”

A warm hand settled into her own and Lily found sudden interest in the floor beneath her feet. _Stark white. Figures._

Bruce took a breath next to her and said hesitantly, “we’re willing to give this a try.”

His words made her head snap up and she looked at him with wide, blue eyes, “ _what_?”

Her heart pounded in her chest as the blood rushed to her ears, unable to believe that he’d really, _really,_ just said those words.

_So close, so close-_

She felt him shift and was momentarily distracted as his leg pressed against hers. He spoke again, drawing her attention back, “it’s- it’s not going to be easy,” he shifted again, his eyes darting towards the floor, “but I’m willing to try.”

Only one word could come out of her mouth, “why?”

Another, slightly less warm hand settled on her shoulder and she turned to look at Stark who gave her an assessing look, “I showed him the footage.”

“What footage?”

“Well, not the fight part since I didn’t have my helmet. But after, before I left. Jarvis recorded you interacting with Big Green over here, so I had video.”

She looked back and forth between them, their angles making the gesture slightly humorous since she couldn’t look at both of them at the same time, “really?”

Bruce shrugged, his eyes focused on aligning his feet on the floor, “it- well, it helped convince me. I’m… I’m still not entirely comfortable, but it helps.”

“Right,” she was still having a hard time believing this was really happening. She turned to Stark, “and what about you?”

He shrugged, “yeah, well,” he waved his hand towards them, “other interests, you know,” then there was a pause, “I’m, ah, thinking about getting help. Rhodey knows someone who I can talk to,” their eyes met briefly, “and maybe she can take two new patients if we pull some strings.”

 _Two?_ Lily puzzled over that before warm fingers squeezed her own, making her realize who the second person was. _Oh._

“I, um, have been meaning to talk to someone.”

“Good, that’s good.”

There was a moment of silence before she ventured the next question, “so, what now?”

Stark sighed heavily, “now we have to figure things out like adults. No more running.”

“No more excuses,” Bruce added.

Lily tentatively reached up to place her hand on top of Stark’s as she finished, “no more hiding.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the final chapter for now! Like I said, I'll be back at the end of August/early September to post the next fic (and I've already started writing it) which will take place between IM3 and AoU. It will be called _Put Your Empty Hands in Mine,_ so keep an eye out for it! 
> 
> In the meantime, I have prewritten a few more oneshots for the parallel series, _Woven in My Soul_ which will come out periodically if you're interested. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this installment and thank you again for the kudos, reads and comments throughout the story- I love hearing/seeing the feedback! :)


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